Go Pinoys! 

Industries that Filipinos invented or played a major role in:

1)  Yo-yo industry:  The toy known today as the yo-yo is actually a very ancient toy that was known throughout much of Eurasia, although some claim its origins are in ancient China.  Ancient Greek vases depict it, an Indian painting from a few centuries ago illustrates it, and it was called bandalore in Europe in recent centuries (probably in France).  The modern yo-yo today is slightly different.  Pedro Flores, a Filipino immigrant (born in the Province of Ilocos Norte) opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in 1928 in Santa Barbara, California.  This company would produce a yo-yo modeled after those in the Philippines which uses a single string or cordage that loops around the axle of the yo-yo, and then the string is twisted around itself.  Flores would patent this design also.  Previous designs of the yo-yo had the string tied to the axle with a knot which did allow the yo-yo to go up and down, but not sleep.  Sleeping is a trick where the yo-yo spins without it having to go up or down.  One common sleep trick is called "Walking the Dog". The following year in 1929, he established two more factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood, and all in all producing 300,000 units daily and employing 600 workers.  Obviously this was an instant success, and it caught the attention of Donald F. Duncan who purchased Flores' company and brand in 1932.  Duncan and others in the future would continue the growth and popularity of the yo-yo in America and around the world.  It is one of the most commercially successful toys ever.   

2) Abacá (Musa textilis) is a species of banana that was recently scientifically proven to originate in the island of Luzon.  It is especially common in the Bicol region of Luzon.  Abaca is also grown in other parts of the Philippines, and in the past century or more is grown in Ecuador and Costa Rica.  Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, Filipinos were using the fiber of the abaca to produce a variety of products such as clothing and other textiles.  During the Spanish period and afterward, abaca became perhaps best known for as a rope material or a type of rope.  The term abaca can be used for the species of banana or just its fiber.  Manila hemp is another term for abaca, and again either for the species of banana or its fiber.  Other abaca products that have come to world popularity are the Manila folder, Manila envelope, and Manila paper.  The barong Tagalog was made traditionally using abaca.  Due to the development of synthetic materials in the past century or so, the use of abaca has been reduced, but still can be found in some tea bags and paper money from some nations.  Many craft products in the Philippines are still made of abaca such as bags (purses), slippers, floor mats, table mats, and hand fans, some of which are sold as gift items in the tourism industry.   

3) Milkfish (bangus) industry:  The milkfish's scientific name is Chanos chanos, and this species of fish naturally occurs in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean.  Interestingly, the milkfish is the sole extant species in the whole scientific family of Chanidae.  It was in the Philippines around 1,800 years ago that the milkfish was being grown artificially in fish ponds (a form of aquaculture).  This aquaculture industry of milkfish would eventually spread to Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Pacific.  Milkfish can be bought in stores in the U.S.A. and many other countries.  In the 1950s, many Thai students came to the Philippines to learn the fish pond industry, but it's only recently (in the past two decades) that milkfish is being promoted in Thailand since growers preferred to grow shrimp and other valuable fish (source:  Milkfish: New choice for aquaculture in Thailand).  The reason for milkfish's development and popularity in the Philippines and beyond is because it's a relatively cheap fish to grow since milkfish eat algae and other organic matter.  It also taste good, can be harvested 2 or 3 times a year, and a lot milkfish is produced.  The only downside (which can be remedied) is that the milkfish has a lot of tiny spiky bones requiring one to be careful in eating it.  Filipinos are accustomed to it, but for people new to milkfish this might be a deterrent.  But many producers do debone the fish and sell it in a cooked form (usually smoked).  It can also be bought in a canned form (such as with sardines) with the bones already removed, and variously flavored.  Milkfish is known as bangus in the Philippines, and is prepared in a variety of ways such as fried bangus, or made into sinigang bangus (a type of soup dish), or bangus embutido.       

A few other industries that will be discussed later on are the following:

Ube industry

Calamansi industry

Macapuno industry

Banana ketchup industry

Sarsa industry

Sugar industry

Nursing industry

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry

Merchant marine industry

Mezcal (e.g. tequila) industry

Salakot

Milkfish (bangus) is the 10th. most produced fish (farmed or cultivated fish) in the world by weight, specifically 0.94 million tons (940,000 tons) were produced in 2013.  It beat out Rainbow Trout.  That's how important this industry is to the world or at least to a good portion of the world's population. 

If we include wild caught fish, and cultivated and wild caught squid, shrimp, crawfish, krill, crab, clam, oyster, and  turtle, then the milkfish ranks at number 24 in terms of weight in 2012.  

It is also the 11th. most produced farmed or cultivated fish in terms of money value at 1.71 billion U.S. dollars in 2013.   

Source:  Fish farming - Wikipedia

            List of commercially important fish species - Wikipedia

The Lipstick Camera

Just before the turn of the 21st Century, Filipino Marc Loinaz invented the one chip video camera. Working with a team at Lucent Technologies in the U.S., they were tasked with creating a camera that was so cheap and used so little electrical power, that it could be integrated into things, such as watches and appliances.

Earlier video cameras generated images by using charge-coupled devices (CCDs), but CCDs could not occupy the same silicon chip as image sensors. Loinax and his team got the analog circuits to occupy the same chip as the digital signal processing circuits by teaching them to ignore one another.

Loinax described the process as: "We scheduled operations on the chip so that during all the sensitive analog operations, we shut down the digital circuits." Today, these so-called "lipstick cameras" show up on daredevil's bodies, Formula 1 racing cars, and the table rail of poker tables during tournaments, where they "spy" on players' cards.

Pinoy develops ‘unsinkable’ boat

A Filipino inventor has developed what he claims to be an unsinkable rescue boat that is the only one of its kind in the world.

Ronald Pagsanghan said he thought of developing an unsinkable boat after he witnessed the devastation wrought by Typhoon “Ketsana” or “Ondoy” in Luzon, including Metro Manila, in 2009.

 The typhoon killed 789 people and caused billions of pesos worth of damage to infrastructure and the agricultural sector. And the rescue operations were delayed by the flood waters that flowed in many areas.

“Rubber boats could not maneuver at the height of the floods,” Pagsanghan said.

“That horrible experience gave me the idea of developing an unsinkable boat designed for rescue operations in flooded areas.”

It was in 2011 that he came up with a prototype of his unsinkable portable boat that he tested successfully.

“My portable unsinkable boat is primarily designed for flooded areas in urban areas and rivers,” Pagsanghan said, adding it was the only one of its kind in the world.

He said in 2012 he received the 2012 award for his invention from the Rotary Club of Manila and the Manila Polo Club.

Since then, local government units from Isabela, Bulacan, and Quezon had ordered boats from him. His rescue boat was one of the main attractions during the recent Filipino Inventory Week held at the SM Dome in North EDSA, Quezon City.

Pagsanghan said he hoped that the government would fully extend help to promote not only his invention but also other notable inventions by Filipino inventors. 

https://manilastandard.net/news/top-stories/282089/pinoy-develops-unsinkable-boat.html#:~:text=A%20Filipino%20inventor%20has%20developed,including%20Metro%20Manila%2C%20in%202009.