NETI's Luis O. Ladines - Retired Seafarer also a Budding Filipino Inventor
During a shipboard assignment in Nigeria sometime in the late 1970s, seafarer Luis Ladines along with the ship’s crew were aghast to learn that the drinking water bought from a local supplier looked murky and appeared contaminated by impurities.
Many years later, Ladines, already a retired radio officer (R/O) teaching full time as instructor of the NYK-Fil Maritime E-Training, Inc. (NETI), drew inspiration from that experience and ventured into a field totally unrelated from his seafaring profession: inventing.
Ladines, 64, is the inventor of and holder of the intellectual property rights to “Gawang Pinoy Water Purity Tester,” duly registered at the country’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
“Gawang Pinoy Water Tester” is a stick-like apparatus measuring seven (7) inches and weighs no more than a hundred grams. The upper tip has a small light bulb that emits when the lower tip is dipped in water that contains particulates. The device is run by electricity. If the bulb does not light up, it means the water is pure and uncontaminated.
In 2010, R/O Ladines along with twenty-nine (29) new inventors qualified for the Ambassador Alfredo M. Yao Intellectual Property (IP) Innovation Award launched in 2009 by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
Asked by the panel of judges how he will demonstrate his invention, R/O Ladines recalled pulling out the device from his pocket and showing it to the judges.
On a table were half-filled cups of water samples taken from different sources: distilled, mineral, purified, and tap. As he sunk the device halfway into each cup, the purity tester would either light up or stay off, depending on the samples’ purity.
On 13 October 2010, R/O Ladines’ water purity tester went on to emerge as one of the finalists in the AMY’s “Most Promising Intellectual Patent (IP) Award” category during ceremonies on the occasion of the 36th Philippine Business Conference and Expo held at the Manila Hotel.
The recognition was not only a proud achievement for R/O Ladines and his family but also for his company and the entire seafaring community as he was the only seafarer who participated in the award.
