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Dr. Gomez broke new ground in the 1970s upon the inception of the Marine Sciences
Center of the University of the Philippines with him as the founding director.
With assets amounting to no more than two sheets of paper, he developed it
into what is known today as the UP-Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI) by recruiting
staff that embodied the same virtues that he deemed important—honesty,
openness, and collegiality. Furthermore, his optimism, determination, and
self-confidence were crucial in overcoming the usual hurdles that accompany
the task of institution-building. After two decades of hard work, UP-MSI was
recognized as the National Center of Excellence in the Marine Sciences (Presidential
Proclamation No. 518/1994) and subsequently as the first and only Center of
Excellence (COE) in Marine Science under the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) COE scheme of promoting and rewarding scientific excellence. By 1998,
the institute had produced 20 ISI-indexed publications yearly, averaging 1.2
per senior staff. One of the institute’s strengths was its ability to
draw research funding from national and international sources. It was the
first institute to have all of its faculty with doctoral degrees and publishing
in ISI-indexed journals. In 2004, MSI was designated as one of the international
Centers of Excellence by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)/World Bank
Project on Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management.
With this, the UP-Bolinao Marine Laboratory in Bolinao, Pangasinan which Dr.
Gomez had built in the mid-80s, became an important hub for international
coral research, and the facility was upgraded with a PABX telephone system
and broadband internet to facilitate communication between researchers and
international contacts. Vital equipment for scientific research was also acquired;
a number of graduate students continue to receive support under this program.
Indeed, Dr. Gomez’s vision, patience and dedication helped put the Philippines
on the center stage of marine science research.
Dr.
Gomez did extensive research on commercially important invertebrates in the
first two decades of his scientific career. Various publications with his
graduate students formed the basis for subsequent mariculture work by young
scientists on threatened species. A natural development from this was his
research on giant clams in the context of a regional program involving several
countries. More recently, this led to the investigation of the effectiveness
of giant clam restocking in reef rehabilitation alongside coral transplantation
(Gomez and Mingoa-Licuanan 2006, Cabaitan et al. 2008). He literally saved
Tridacna gigas populations in the Philippines from extinction by understanding
the life cycle of the giant clam and applying the knowledge to culture spat
to juveniles in laboratory tanks, and subsequently releasing adult specimens
in coral reefs. This sparked interest among several private and public entities
that were keen on developing giant clam ocean nurseries. For example, one
such nursery was built in 2002 at the Hundred Islands National Park in association
with the Philippine Tourism Authority. Dr. Gomez also received a fellowship
grant from 2002-2005 to study the effectiveness of giant clam restocking to
remediate coral reefs that had been reduced to rubble from blast fishing.
One of Dr. Gomez’s coral transplantation
projects, together with a
giant clam that was restocked in the area.
Furthermore, Dr. Gomez’s research on coral farming is a veritable wealth
of knowledge. He adopted the ‘gardening concept’ of active rehabilitation
to remediate degraded coral reefs in Bolinao, Pangasinan. This action-based
method of conservation was believed to be more effective than passive conservation
in saving coral reefs, the latter simply protecting and leaving a degraded
reef to regenerate on its own. His recent experiments on coral farming studied
several species and associated genotypes to assess which corals would survive
better on different substrates (Shaish et al. 2007). Coupled with economic
data, like the cost of materials and man hours to employ such rehabilitation,
Dr. Gomez’s research continues to be people-oriented.
He
has received numerous awards, both before and after becoming a member of the
National Academy of Science and Technology, among them the UNEP Global 500
Roll of Honour, the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award, and the University
of the Philippines Concepcion Dadulfalza Award for Distinguished Achievement.
These awards are testimonials to his outstanding leadership in the Marine
Science Institute and the Filipino scientific community. With over 130 technical
publications in his resumé, this man is a symbol of hard work and dedication.
It is no surprise that many future scientists and biologists perceive him
as a man of honor and achievement. What I find particularly noteworthy about
him is his ability to apply experiences learned from science to the benefit
of local fishing communities. Reef restoration is integral in setting up marine
sanctuaries that aim to increase fish yield in such communities, which are
home to many Filipino homes and hearts. It is this interaction between science
and people that makes him stand out in Philippine science, and I believe he
will always be remembered because of this.
