Minnie Pangilinan

This co-inventor of Brakong, an innovative breast prosthesis, says designers must have a sense of duty to serve the people, especially the marginalised

- Franz Sorilla IV

The Design Center of the Philippines (DCP) challenged the country’s finest designers to come up with an ingenious way to utilise bakong, a locally-grown aquatic plant with antimicrobial purposes. Two emerging creatives from Surgical Innovations and Biotechnology Laboratory (SIBOL) answered the challenge with a sustainable solution: Brakong, a breast prosthesis for breast cancer survivors; made of bakong, the environmentally friendly bio-based product is, at the same time, comfortable to wear. Brakong came at an opportune time. The International Agency for Research on Cancer recorded in 2020 that breast cancer is one of the two most common cancer types affecting women globally, with the Philippines having the highest incidence in Asia. Emmanuelle “Minnie” Alcazaren