DR. LOURDES JANSUY CRUZ: SCIENTIST TO THE BARRIOS

WRITTEN BY CARLO TIMBOL REPORTED BY MARY ANTOINETTE SIMON 2008-09 VOL 19 NO 1

EDITOR’S NOTE: Carlo Timbol with Mary Antoinette Simon featured an interview with one of the National Scientists of the Philippines: Dr. Lourdes Jansuy Cruz. Dr. Cruz narrated her experiences in establishing the Rural Livelihood Incubator which meant to provide livelihood for the indigenous people. This article shows that scientists and the national minorities can have a mutual relationship that benefits one another. It is a shame that the current administration continues to terrorize our national minorities such as the Lumad. The fact that national minorities value education as featured here makes a striking contrast with the efforts of the government to militarize or bomb schools.

THAT CAUGHT DR. CRUZ unawares. Before the query, she has only been telling stories about the students in her CWTS class and their students in her CWTS class and their outreach activities with the Aetas, fishermen and farmers of Morong, Bataan.

“Ganu’n din,” Dr. Cruz stammered. “Wala namang nagbago except nainvite ako one time to give an inspirational talk...”

She paused, and then chuckled, “Siguro nga tumatanda na ‘ko.”

The University of the Philippines, from which Dr. Cruz got her BS Chemistry degree in 1962, has basically ran out of ways to honor her. When UP named Dr. Cruz Scientist Ill in 2006, it gave her the highest rank under the university’s Scientific Productivity System. The alumni associations of UP and UP Chemistry have also bequeathed her a Professional Achievement Award in Biochemistry and an Outstanding Alumnus distinction, respectively. International institutions that have recognized her work include the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the National Association of Science and Technology and the Sweden-based International Foundation for Science. In a word, Dr. Lourdes Jansuy Cruz — Dr. Luly to the people in MSI — is a veritable superstar.

But she hardly looked the part during her interview with Scientia.

‘’Are you not used to talking about your own achievements, Ma’am?”

That made her smile. Finally, she seemed to think, this journalist got it “Well,” Dr. Cruz replied. “For someone who works in the lab...“

Laboratory work, indeed, has been Dr. Cruz’s preoccupation ever since her stint as research aide in the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1962. Then fresh from college, she went on to work as Graduate Assistant in the University of Iowa, where she got her MS and Ph.D. in Biochemistry. She returned to IRRI after obtaining her Ph.D. in 1968, but most of her career was spent teaching and doing research first in UP Manila’s Department of Biochemistry and then in the University of Utah’s Department of Biology. She is presently a full-time professor in the MSI.

Dr. Cruz’s research involves poisonous peptides found in the venom of cone snails ( Conus sp.), found abundantly in tropical seawaters. Her work with these toxic peptides, called conotoxins, has led in part to the characterization of over 50 biologically active peptides from cone snail venom and the development of conotoxins as probes for observing brain activity. For all her achievements, in 2006 she was conferred the Order of National Scientist — the highest recognition that the Philippine government can give a Filipino scientist.

But Dr. Cruz’s legacy does not rest solely on these. In 2001, as president of the Bataan Center for Innovative Science & Technology (BCISTI) she helped establish the Rural Livelihood Incubator (Rural LINC), which aimed to help the rural poor with the use of science and technology. As a start, the Rural LINC was set up in Morong, Bataan, where they hoped to generate employment for its poorest residents — the Pasama-Anahao farmers, the fishermen and the Aetas, who live in an area called Kanawan.

It wasn’t easy.

“It’s very difficult to bring in technology if the people involved do not know anything,” said Dr. Cruz, referring to the initial lack of understanding among the poor of Morong. “Nauwi tuloy sa education.”

This realization drove the Rural LINC to look for volunteers to teach in Morong and soon they trickled in from the

BCISTI, Eduk Ink (a group of volunteers from among UP alumni), Laging Pahinungod (a group of student volunteers from UP) and the Center for BioMolecular Science Foundation, which also has Dr. Cruz as president. Somewhere along the way, even Dr. Cruz’s CWTS classes got involved.

The Rural LINC’s educational programs have its crowing triumph in its collaborations with the Kanawan Aetas. From the beginning, Dr. Cruz was aware that the culture of the Aetas must be respected if the Rural LINC is to really help them. ‘We don’t dictate anything to them. That’s the worst thing we can do,” said Dr. Cruz, who added that all of the Rural LlNC’s projects in Kanawan were conceptualized with the Aetas. The Rural LINC even formulated its own socio-cultural development index to assess the impact of their projects on the Aetas’s way of life. The index was a result of ten months of consultations between the Rural LINC and the Aetas.

The precautions paid off, not only in facilitating the entry of alternative and sustainable sources of livelihood in Kanawan (such as beekeeping, ecotourism, use of green charcoal, permaculture, agroforestry, etc.), but also in making the Aetas more fond of education. To illustrate, Dr. Cruz related a study made by graduate student Grace Yu on the medicinal properties of limuran, an Aeta dish made of a certain variety of rattan. The limuran, it was observed, was often taken by persons suffering from stomachaches. It turned out that limuran contained “anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer compounds;’ as well as substances that are possible competitors of a commercial anti-diarrhea drug. The discovery opened a vista into developing and commercializing Aeta traditional medicine — and a possibility of generating money for the Aetas. “With traditional medicine, we recognized [the Aetas’s] intellectual property rights;’ said Dr. Cruz. “Since for [the Aetas], traditional medicine is communal knowledge, whatever income is generated from it will have to benefit the whole community.”

The Aetas then discussed among themselves where the money will be spent on, just in case. Their decision: invest 40% of the money — the largest share — into education. “Sila na mismo ang nagdesisyong mahalaga ang education,” chirped Dr. Cruz.

Despite its successes, the Rural LINC is not without its problems. Dr. Cruz herself related incidences of Aeta children being called bakulaw by their teachers, and teachers coming to class only thrice a week. However these appear to be isolated cases — a growing mutual appreciation between the Aetas and the visitors remains the norm.

As for Dr. Cruz’s CWTS classes, the students spend a weekend in Morong during the first semester and three weekends during the second. One of Dr. Cruz’s wards, music major Cristina Maria Cayabyab, composed a song for the Aeta children. “Parang anthem na siya ngayon ng mga Aeta kids,” beamed Dr. Cruz. “’Yung mga bata, ‘pag may nagsimula nang kumanta, lahat kantahan na!”

A recording of the song is stored in Dr. Cruz’s laptop, and she let this writer listen to it. “Galing ‘no?” she’d pipe every now and then.

It was then Scientia’s turn to stand dumbfounded. ●