The Integrated Chemists of the Philippines (ICP) is proud to announce that the country’s competing delegates in the 52nd International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) took home one silver and three bronze medals from the annual event. Slated to be physically held in Istanbul, Turkey, this edition of the IChO featured 235 high school students from sixty countries, and had to be conducted online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its virtual closing ceremony held on July 30, the IChO awarded medals and citations to the winners. The medalists from the Philippines are:

Silver Medalist
Michael Cole Tantoco (Philippine Science High School [PSHS] Main Campus)

Bronze Medalists
Nathan Wayne Ariston (PSHS Central Mindanao Campus)
Ron Angelo Gelacio (PSHS Main Campus)
Stefan Marcus Ong (Saint Jude Catholic School)

While the gold medal is still elusive, this year’s medal haul is the country’s best-ever performance and also marks the first time that all delegates from Team Philippines will take home one medal each.

Serving as this year’s main coaching staff are: Dr Faith Marie Lagua (De La Salle University), head coach and mentor; Dr Jose Andaya (PSHS CALABARZON Campus), head mentor and country coordinator; and Dr Nestor Valera (Ateneo de Manila University) and Dr Hilbert Magpantay (De La Salle University), coaches and mentors.

First held in 1968, the IChO is an annual competition for high school students in the field of chemistry. The Philippines sent its maiden competing delegation to the competition in 2017, taking home two bronze medals.

Congratulations from the ICP!

The ICP Election 2020 Committee is pleased to announce the results of the elections for ICP Board of Directors. The elected board members (in bold) who will serve from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2023 are:

Academe
Glenn Alea (155)
Abstain (8)

Government
Angelo Bugarin (145)
Abstain (18)

Industry
Priscilla Alice “Mutya” Samonte (146)
Abstain (17)

Ballots received:
Valid: 163
Invalid: 7
Total: 170

The Committee would like to thank all those who participated and voted in this election. We would like to also thank Ms Nenita Marayag, outgoing board director of the ICP National Chapter, for having served as its board member (2017-2019) and auditor (2019-2020).

Let us all continue to support the different activities of the ICP.

Sincerely,
ICP Election 2020 Committee
Dr Lilibeth Coo (Chair)
Ms Edna Mijares (Member)
Dr Rosalinda Torres (Member)

Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Integrated Chemists of the Philippines (ICP) held its 9th Annual Meeting of Chapters last 12 June 2020 via video conference for the first time. The meeting was attended by officers of the ICP’s nationwide chapters and also by the Board of Chemistry (BOC).

ICP President Dr Fabian Dayrit kicked things off with an annual report on the state of ICP’s organizational matters. He stressed that each ICP chapter must be strengthened through public events such as seminars and community involvement as this equates to an overall improvement of the chemistry profession in country. He also enumerated events that the national chapter initiated such as the 3rd National Conference of Chemical Laboratories. Dr Dayrit also highlighted some events such as the launching of the Bicol and Zamboanga Peninsula chapters and the establishment of the Unilab Cluster. In addition, the ICP National Chapter is coordinating with the BOC in the development of a career progression and specialization program for the country’s chemistry professionals. Dr Glenn Alea, ICP’s Vice President for Internal Affairs, gave an insight on the membership composition of the organization.

Each chapter then took turns in presenting their own accomplishment reports for the past year. Most chapters organized relevant events to their community: the Panay and Bacolod chapters each held seminars that tackled instrumentation methods of analysis; the Southern Mindanao chapter organized a seminar on good laboratory practice; the Bicol chapter convened the inaugural Bicol Chemistry Forum; the Cebu chapter held a few seminars for chemistry majors; and the Region 3 chapter held a livelihood seminar on making soap and alcohol. Meanwhile, in response to the COVID-19 situation, the Region 3, Bicol, Cebu, Panay, X/XII/BARMM/CARAGA, and Southern Mindanao chapters were able to make a significant volume of alcohol and hypochlorite solutions which were handed over to medical and government authorities. The Bacolod chapter also allocated a significant amount of money to the local frontliners to help in the purchasing of personal protective equipment.

The BOC also gave an update on the evaluation of compliances of the chemical laboratories that they were able to inspect. This was also a chance for the chapter representatives to air their problems and concerns, such as the disregard of some chemical laboratories to comply with the Chemistry Profession Act and the shortage of chemistry professionals in specific localities.