Bede P. Ozaraga, D.V.M., Ph.D.
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| Dr. Ozaraga labels the package of his dewormers prior to winning DOST's creative research award in 2013. |
Commitment, persistence, fulfilment, success—all these can be said about Dr. Bede Ozaraga, our profiled researcher for this issue.
Born on July 9, 1961 in Clarin, Misamis Occidental, Bede Pintacasi Ozaraga started employment at the then Panay State Polytechnic College (PSPC) in 1985. After obtaining Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Central Mindanao University in Bukidnon in 1984, he tried his luck at the PSPC in Burias, Mambusao, Capiz.
In 1992, this Cebuano who chose to work in Capiz would finish Master of Science in Animal Science at the PSPC Burias and would then be granted doctorate in Animal Science at the University of the Philippines Los Baños in 1999.
When asked why he became a veterinarian, Ozaraga says, “I have the desire to help those creatures who cannot help themselves, and this ardent desire to safeguard them from diseases.”
In his chosen endeavour, Ozaraga deems himself fortunate because “in my years as a veterinarian working in the academe, I have had opportunities to raise domestic and farm animals for productivity. In the same capacity, I have also had experience in the treatment and control of diseases of domestic animals.”
When the College of Veterinary Medicine was launched in PSPC Dumarao in 2002, doors opened for the said campus owing to the active efforts and expertise of Dr. Ozaraga. Per Board of Trustees Resolution No. 390, series of 1998, the PSPC College of Veterinary Medicine was launched as part of the roadmap to establish veterinary medical schools across the country. From 2002 to the present, he has served as the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the CapSU Dumarao Campus in Codingle, Dumarao, Capiz.
Back in 1991, Ozaraga took on the parasiticide studies which then formed part of the Science and Technology mandate of the government. The endeavor would later become ethnobotanical anthelmintic studies which he and his wife, Dr. Ma. Sylvia Inting Ozaraga—who works in the same institution—have pursued with persistence and dedication.
At CapSU, Dr. Ozaraga has been active in research through the years. His studies have seen publications in both local and national journals including the PSPC Journal which later became the CapSU Research Journal and the Philippine Journal of Veterinary & Animal Science.
He has also served as project leader in varied research studies, namely: Assessment of the Efficacy of Parasiticidal Plants in Controlling Internal and External Parasites of Livestock (1992) funded by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Research; Field Testing and Evaluation of the Formulated Natural Parasiticide againstLiverfluke and Other Helminths in Goats under the auspices of then Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) completed in 2004; and the “Production and Distribution of Ethnobotanical Anthelmintic for Free Range Native Chickens” granted by PCAARRD and completed in 2014.
And as if to highlight his achievement in these studies, the research team composed of Dr. Bede Ozaraga, Dr. Ma Sylvia Inting Ozaraga & Dr. Maryneth Baticbatic Barrios whose entry titled “Ethnobotanical Anthelmintic for Free Range Native Chickens” was declared the regional winner for Creative Research Category, or Likha Award during the 2013 Regional Invention Contests & Exhibits (RICE) sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Technology Promotion and Application Institute (TAPI) at the Robinsons Place in Iloilo City. Ozaraga’s winning team was awarded a certificate, a plaque of recognition and cash prize by TAPI. The same study and its product has recently been granted utility model for Capiz State University.
Among others, the winning research noted how the contribution of the native chicken to the economy of rural farming communities has been well recognized though not properly quantified, citing that “the native chicken is not only an important source of high-quality protein food but also additional income for small farmers in these communities.” It also maintained that the prevalence of internal parasitism in native chickens and the increasing cost of commercial veterinary anthelmintics—worsened by their unavailability in the barangay level—dramatically reduce the potential of the native chicken in Western Visayas.
Further, the winning project promoted that “there is a need to utilize ethnobotanicals available in these communities” even as many ethnobotanical anthelmintics have been proven to contain potential constituents as cheap sources of anthelmintics to complement the commercially manufactured parasitic drugs against internal parasitism. For the winning team, using ethnobotanical dewormers can reduce the burden of intestinal parasites in free-range native chickens to tolerable levels.
For Ozaraga, research does not end in all these citations and forms of recognition. At the core of his efforts and even more so in his achievements, he says that he’d “like to help the ordinary folks and farmers in raising and taking care of their animals and also help them increase their productivity.”
For this campus administrator who has led the management of CapSU Dumarao Campus since 2010, extension work is the twin sister of research. All research is futile if their results cannot be utilized or do not serve the common good.
Ozaraga recalls that in previous years, he once worked for a team that led anti-rabies vaccination of some 3,000 domestic animals—dogs and cats—across the 26 barangays of Mambusao, Capiz. Said figure had been gradually achieved from 1987 through 1992 as part of PSPC’s extensionprogram at the time.
Asked about the benefits from working in CapSU, Ozaraga lists four gains, namely: professional advancement, financial security, spiritual growth and emotional quotient improvement. First, Ozaraga takes pride in having moved up the professional ladder owing to his engagement inresearch through the years.
Second, he thanks the institution for providing him financial stability that supports his career and his family. The Dumarao campus administrator also cites spiritual growth. For him, CapSU has provided avenues and opportunities in which a strong sense of community benefits the individual. And finally, he notes how emotional quotient has seen improvement through the years of dealing with various personalities and temperaments in the University.
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| Dr.Ozaraga presents his dewormers study in a conference. |
In all these involvements, this Professor VI who wishes to disseminate the technologies to small-hold communities can only constantly renew his commitment to research and extension—even as he expresses his desire to serve the university “with all my mind, my heart and with all my strength.” For him, nothing more will satisfy. (N. Manaog/Extension Associate)
