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.
