Conference
Speakers
Armand Bengco
Executive Director
Colayco Foundation
ARMAND Q. BENGCO is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Colayco Foundation for Education, Inc. and the Co-Founder and General Manager of Kapatiran sa Kasaganaan Service & Multi-Purpose (KSK-SMP) Cooperative.
Aside from managing the day to day and future plans & projects of the Colayco Foundation and KsK Coop, an investment cooperative, Mr. Bengco hosts cable TV programs in
Global News Network, The Filipino Channel (TFC-ABSCBN), GMA News TV, DZRH-TV and Light Network TV.
He is a favorite resource person of various media outfits in radio and TV for their morning and magazine shows.
Mr. Bengco regularly conducts seminars and workshops in line with the Colayco Foundation’s advocacy. He is part of GoNegosyo as one its “angelpreneurs” and its resource speaker on personal financial matters. He has been invited by numerous entities, companies, government agencies, schools, church groups, associations both here and abroad.
He regularly speaks in Hong Kong and has done a seminar or two in Singapore, Taiwan, Italy, Spain and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Having had a wide range of experience in personal finance, government, manufucturing, self -employment and information technology, his immersion in several industries marks Mr. Bengco’s unique approach in guiding on the basics of personal finance and investments in a manner that is easily appreciated accompanied by timely market appreciation and various investment options you can avail of.
A father to two boys Armike, 23 years old, a Bedan alumnus and a Trust Officer in BPI Asset Management Inc. and Arnick, 21 years old, also a Bedan alumnus and works as HR practitioner in Australian New Zealand (ANZ) Bank. Mr. Bengco is a product of De La Salle Zobel and San Beda College. He is taking his Masters in Entreprenuership in Ateneo Graduate School of Business.
Inorisa Sialana-Elento
Executive Director
Mindanao Migrants Center for Empowering Actions, Inc.
INORISA SIALANA-ELENTO is a founding member and has been the Executive Director of the Mindanao Migrants Center for Empowering Actions, Inc (MMCEAI), a rights-based service center for migrants and families of migrant workers, since its establishment in 2008.
Although she earned her degree in Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and had brief professional experience as a laboratory analyst in a cement factory, she decided to pursue development work after her environmental research revealed the toxic effects of the factory she had been working with to nearby communities.
Norie, as she is fondly called, has been in the development work for Mindanao since 1985, having worked with migrant workers, women, children, Moro and indigenous peoples, other marginalized peoples and communities and international solidarity groups. Before MMCEAI, she had worked as Executive Directors’ of Mindanao Interfaith Peoples Services Foundation, Inc. ( 1994-2001), and Nonoy Librado Development Foundation, Inc. (NLDFI) 2001-2002, and with several other organizations including Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus (MPC), Center for Overseas Workers Foundation, Inc. (COWFI), among others.
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Andrea Luisa Anolin
Executive Assistant
Commission for Overseas Filipinos
Ms. Anolin currently serves as the Executive Assistant to CFO Chairperson Secretary Imelda M. Nicolas since July 2012. She has been involved in the national as well as local migration and development initiatives of CFO through the mainstreaming of M&D in the updated Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, the establishment of the Sub-Committee on International Migration and Development under the NEDA Social Development Committee, and the OECD project on the interrelations between migration, development and other public policies. Ms. Anolin is also the point person for CFO as the national anchor government agency of the Joint Migration and Development Initiative Phase 2 (JMDI2) project, working with project implementers and partners in the JMDI2 Bicol and SUMMID Calabarzon projects, and the JMDI2-related Migration and Development Initiatives in Western Visayas (MDI-WV) project.
Prior to joining CFO, Ms. Anolin served as the Executive Director of Batis Center for Women, a non-government organization established in 1989 that provides assistance to returned distressed women migrant workers, from crisis intervention to healing, recovery, reintegration and empowerment. Her involvement in Batis Center for Women started in 1993, and she served in various capacities as program staff, Women Empowerment Program Coordinator before her appointment as Executive Director in 2005.
Ms. Anolin also worked with other NGOs such as the Philippine Environmental Action Network (PEAN, 1994), Women’s Crisis Center (1995) and WEDPRO (Women’s Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization), Inc. (1995-1999).
Estrella Mai Anonuevo
Executive Director
ATIKHA Overseas Workers and Communities Initiatives, Inc.
Mai has a degree in Masters in Entrepreneurship for Social and Development Enterprises at the Asian Institute of Management. She worked as a researcher of the Frankfurt Institute for Women Research and co-authored the book Ein Traum vom Besseren Leben ( A Dream of a Better Life). She also worked as a research staff of Center for Women’s Resources and authored the publication of Migration of Women: The Social Trade Off. She is also one of the editors of : Women Migration and Reintegration, a book on the research conducted by Atikha on the social cost of migration and the plans for reintegration of migrants in Hongkong and Italy.
She has been an executive director of Atikha for 6 years and has been involved in various researches, module development, and published several books on migration related issues. She is one of the authors of the books Children’s Response to the Challenges of Migration; a Trainers’ Training Manual for school- based Migration Realities and Capacity Building seminar and Ang Migrasyong Pilipino: Mga Kaugnay na Kahalagahan at Kagalingang Dapat Malinang sa Kabataan; Mga Teksto at Banghay Aralin. Ms. Dizon-Anonuevo led the development of the module on Financial Literacy for OFWs and Seafarers and their families. She is the lead editor in the production of the Financial Literacy Trainers Training Manual: Financial Literacy and Addressing Barriers to Reintegration for OFWs and their families. She has been a trainer and facilitator of the Financial Literacy seminar being conducted by Atikha for the last 4 years.
Jose Felino (Joefel) Reson
Parish Worker
Pastoral Secretariat
Coordinator, Service Ministry
Patronage of St. Joseph Parish in Pototan, Iloilo
Joefel Reson is full time Volunteer Parish Worker coordinating the Pastoral Secretariat and leading the Service Ministry of the Patronage of St. Joseph Parish in Pototan, Iloilo.
One of the tasks of the Service Ministry is the organizing of the St. Joseph Movement for Migrants and their Families. This is a parish initiated organization of Migrants.
Program Coordinator of Panaghoy sang mga Tinuga (Lamentations of Creation), the only environmental radio program and advocacy group aired every Sunday from 3 to 5 pm at 94.7 FM DYMI Shine Radio in Calinog, Iloilo.
Program Coordinator of Paghirinugpong sang mga Tinugyanan (Unity of Stewards), the only ecumenical radio program that will be launched this coming November 19, 2014 and will be aired every Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 pm .
A Community Development Worker who worked on Church Oriented Programs in the areas of Negros Oriental, Camarines Norte and Mindoro Occidental.
A graduate of the Rural Leaders Training at the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi, Japan and an intensive Health training at the Asian Heath Institute in Nagoya, Japan.
Atty. Jalilo dela Torre
Labor Attache II
Department of labor and Employment
Ildefonso (Ding) Bagasao
CEO and President
Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos (ERCOF)
Mr. Bagasao is a Filipino lawyer with some 35 years of immigration law experience in both government and private practice. As a resident of Geneva from 1996 to 2004, he was co-chair of the Geneva Forum for Philippine Concerns, and board member of the CFMW, a Europe wide Filipino NGO. In 1999, he co-founded the Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos(ERCOF), which now has focal persons and networks in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the US and is seconded to Ercof Philippines as President .He chairs the Institute for Migration and Development Issues(IMDI), a Philipine-based think –tank on migration and development concerns.
Under his watch, Ercof became a partner of the Philippine central bank( BSP,) on its financial literacy campaign, resource org on OFW matters for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and the Remittance and Development Council of the Philippines. Ercof is partner of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines(RBAP) and with 15 individual rural banks nationwide to link Filipino migrants and their families to rural bank products and services , including linking OFW savings and investments in microfinance rural banks. In his home province of Nueva Ecija, Ercof operates a dairy investment program benefiting OFWs and dairy farmers in the town of Talavera. Ercof was a consortium partner of the Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) of the UNDP/EU on a 14 month project called Maria for MDGs, a gender and entrepreneurship project in Mindanao empowering grassroots women coops in six(6) municipalities.
Mr. Bagasao has presented papers in various national and international conferences on migration, remittances and development. He was Lead Consultant for the 2004 ADB study on Enhancing the Efficiency of Remittances for Overseas Filipino workers; Principal Researcher for the IOM on an EU-Aeneas study on four(4) remittance corridors with focus on the Philippines and Indonesia; principal researcher for the ILO Regional office Bangkok, on Remittance Backed Products and Services, Phils, -all appearing in www.ercof.com . He was a civil society delegate to the Global Forum on Migration and Development(GFMD) forums in Brussels, Manila, Mexico, Athens and Geneva.
Czarina Medina-Guce
Executive Director
Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP)
Czarina Medina-Guce is the Executive Director of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), the umbrella organization of local government leagues and locally elected officials in the Philippines. She handles overall strategic program and policy advocacy management and technical support, partnership development and management, and resource mobilization.
Czarina is one of the 10 fellows of the inaugural batch of The Asia Foundation Development Fellowships Program for Emergent Leaders in Asia. She is the only Filipino fellow in the cohort, and was selected out of around 600 applications from Asian countries.
As further practice of her profession, she takes on research work related to social development, leadership, program development and assessment, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation for different organizations such as Ayala Foundation, the Civil Service Commission, and the Asian Institute of Management, among other non-profit and community organizations. She has published articles in national and regional academic journals, and co-wrote and co-edited several books.
Prior to her work in the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, she worked in the Asian Institute of Management – Team Energy Center for Bridging Leadership, Ateneo de Manila University Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Development Studies Program, Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, and ABS-CBN’s former “The Correspondents” documentary program.
Czarina completed her Bachelors Degree in Social Sciences, minor in Development Management, from the Ateneo de Manila University, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and completed her Masters Degree in Sociology from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She recently completed Executive Programs in the National University of Singapore – Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy on Policy Development and Leadership, and several Executive Programs under the Ateneo Center for Continuing Education.
Alvin Ang
Ateneo de Manila University
Dr. Alvin P. Ang is a faculty member of Economics Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He acquired his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Santo Tomas, Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore, and Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Osaka University. Dr. Ang’s specializes in Public Finance, Labour and Migration, Urban and Rural Development, and Systems and Capacities Involvement. In 2013, he served as President of the Philippine Economic Society. He also served as a consultant for USAID, World Bank, World Health Organization, Asian Development Bank, and the International Labor Organization (Philippines and Bangkok).
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Maria Angela (Mayan) Villalba
President and Founder
Unlad Kabayan
May-an is Founder and Executive Director of Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation. She is also adjunct faculty of Entrepreneurship Department, College of Business Administration, Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Philippines.
Mariel Vincent Rapisura
President and CEO
Social Enterprise Development Partnership, Inc. (SEDPI)
Mariel Vincent Rapisura gained considerable experience in microfinance, financial literacy and social entrepreneurship having worked on these fields in 24 countries in the past 15 years. He was a finalist to the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012. Vince is not only a capacity builder but a social entrepreneur himself – effectively combining research, academe and practice. He established four financially sustainable social enterprises that demonstrated clear social impact. His social enterprises reached out to 2,500 organizations servicing an estimated 6 million poor households all over the world.
Vince is a product of the Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management. He has also been trained in the Netherlands and the United States of America on microenterprise development and rural finance. Vince is a faculty member of the Development Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University and teaches social entrepreneurship and microfinance.
Jeremaiah Opiniano
Institute of Migration and Development Issues
Jeremaiah Opiniano is executive director of the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI), a nonprofit thinktank that does policy research, advocacy, databanking and social commentaries on international migration and development issues in the Philippines. He is also coordinator and assistant professor of journalism in the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. Mr. Opiniano authored Good News for the Poor: Diaspora Philanthropy by Filipinos (2005).
IRMA COSICO
Chief Executive Office
ASKI Global, Inc
Irma L. Cosico is the Chief Executive Officer of ASKI Global Limited.
She has been in the micro-finance industry in various capacities for almost fifteen years, was Managing Director of ABS-CBN Bayan Academy for Social Entrepreneurship & Human Resource mevelopment until March 2010.
She headed the Micro-finance Operations of the ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation from 2003 to 2005 and the Client Services Groug from 1999 to 2002. Irma also
- served as eonsultant to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) irn 2002 where she assisted in the design of the Japan.
She was commissioned by Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Corporation (HSBC) in 2006 to do a study on Franchising Micro-finance.Irma was one of the pioneers of the Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development, a network of Rhilippine Christian-based MFls ana was seconded as P oject Coordinator of the Micro-finance Council of the
Philippines in 1998.
She took her MS Development Communication in the University of the Philippines Los Banos and Master in Public Administration in Carleton University Canada as a CIDA scholar. She also holds a Master in Entrepreneurship degree from the Asian Institute of Management.
ATTY. ROMEO T. CABARDE, JR.
Chairperson
University Engagement and Advocacy Council (UCEAC)
Ateneo Public Interest and Legal Advocacy (APILA)
Atty. Cabarde is engaged in various advocacy issues which include the fields of gender, sexuality, reproductive health, human rights, peace education, environment, good governance, leadership and organizational development among others. Currently, he is the Coordinator of the Ateneo Public Interest and Legal Advocacy Center (APILA), which houses the human rights programs and services of Ateneo de Davao University. At the same time, he is the Davao Regional Coordinator of Amnesty International Philippines, an international organization working for the promotion and protection of human righs, including the youth.
Besides his post in APILA, he was formerly the Executive Director of Luna Legal Resource Center for Women and Children which promotes the welfare of marginalized women and children, and helps to empower them as active partners in the elimination of all forms of violence. He provided legal assistance to victims of violence in Southern Mindanao and increased people's awareness and knowledge about violence against women and children through conducting legislative and issue-based advocacy. He also helped raised the level of interest and capability of law practitioners, law sudents and dvelopment workers on relevant laws rearding women and children. And because of his legal background, he also became a part of the Institute of Envrionmental Governance of Tanggol Kalikasan, an alternative environmental protection, conervation and rehabilitation.
In 2006-2008 he ha been elected as the Coordinator for Mindanao, National Conferation of Youth Advocacies. Just recently, he received an Award of Commendation given by the National Youth Commission to the Top 10 Youth Advocates of thePhilippines in 2008 for his unselfish and untiring advocacy for youth issues particularly in the field of Adolescent Reproductive Health.
He is a fellow of the Internayional Human Rights Training Program of the Equitas Center for Human Rights Education, Montreal, Canada. He is also a member of the Asian Young Leaders in Governane of the UNDP, Regional Center Bangkok.
He is serving as a full time instructor of the Ateneo de Davao University under its Political Science, History and International Studies Departments (Asian and American Studies) of the Social Sciences Cluster teaching law, history and international studies courses.
His latest designation is being the Chairperson of the University Community Engagement and Advocacy Council (UCEAC), AdDU's governing council on all extrnal engagements and advocacies.
Dr. Mina Ramirez
President
Asian Social Institute
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Dr. Mina M. Ramirez is President of the Asian Social Institute, Vice-President of the Francis Senden Memorial Foundation (FSMF), Inc.; Consultant of the Social Research Center of the University of Sto. Tomas; Board Member of Miriam College; and a member of the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences established by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in January 1994 in Rome, Italy.
She holds the following degrees: AB in 1955; BS in Education from St. Theresa’s College, Manila (summa cum laude); MS in Sociology from the Asian Social Institute; and Ph. D. in Organizational Development and Planning from the Southeast Asian Interdisciplinary Development Institute.
In the past, she has served as National Organizer and National President of the Young Christian Workers. In the Asian Social Institute, she has served in various capacities as Professor, Dean of the Sociology Department and Acting Director. Outside of the ASI, she also served as President of the Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society (EDCS - now known as Oikocredit), Board Member of the De La Salle University System, East Asian Pastoral Institute and Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation.
Dr. Ramirez is also a recipient of various awards like the Ozanam Award (given by the Jesuits), St. Benedict Award (given by the Benedictines, Most Outstanding Women of the Philippines given during the centennial year of the Philippines, etc.
http://www.asinet-online.org/asi_president/drmina.htm
Hector Gloria
Head of Linkage
La Salle San Benilde
Dr. Raul C. Alvarez, Jr. CESO III
Director IV
CHED Regional Office XI
Jess Cifra
Head of Remittance Division
ChinaBank
Ms. Rosabel Guerrero
Director
Department of Economics Statistics
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
Camille Krejci
CEO
PhilSmile
After competitive studies mostly in maths and statistics in undergraduate in France, Camille (Cam) was admitted into Master in Management at ESSEC, one of the leading business schools in Europe. As soon as he entered, he created my first venture, Banakae, a website to stream Japanese animation, for 2 years. France is the first country outside of Japan for Japanese animation (like Naruto or Dragon Ball Z), with 5 million monthly illegal viewers. He learned a lot managing five developers and touching to everything. This failure made him learn not to partner with the wrong people.
He then spent most of the last 3+ years in South East Asia in various roles, in media in Bangkok, then as project manager at TransferTo (international airtime remittances), where he gets exposed to the remittance sector and its emerging alternatives from international top-ups to prepaid products such as electricity or food. Meanwhile, Cam was active in doing some consulting for fellow entrepreneurs from projects as diverse as indoor-ski facilities, payment platform, or social video site. He also did a MBA exchange program at Macquarie, Australia.
From this experience and different meetings with Filipino friends, his girlfriend and the encounter with EduPay project, he understood that the key reason Filipinos go overseas was not to send back a food or load, but to afford for their kid's colleges. He remembered in one of his first trips to Manila a taxi driver, asking to become his driver, not for him, but because his daughter was already 14 and he needed money for her college education. That's why he created PhilSmile, a unique platform to enable Overseas Filipinos to directly ay for their children's education. Makapagpatapos.
Leila Rispens-Noel
Director and Co Founder
WIMLER Foundation Philippines
WIMLER Foundation Hong Kong
Leila co-founded WIMLER Foundation Hong Kong Ltd. and WIMLER Philippines in 2006. She was Senior Advisor for INAFI International, a network of more than 300 microfinance institutions located in Latin America, Asia, and Africa until 2012. Leila was former Program Manager at Oxfam Novib, a Dutch development agency based in the Netherlands where she developed and managed the startup of the EU-funded project titled “Harnessing the Potentials of Migration for Development by Linking Microfinance Institutions and Immigrant Associations” which is implemented in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and 10 European countries. It was also during her period with Oxfam Novib that she developed the capacity building program for Diaspora organizations in the Netherlands.
Leila was a member of International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Civil Society Global Forum for Migration and Development (GFMD, Manila 2008), GFMD (Mauritius 2012), and member of the Migrants Advisory Board (MAB) of the EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI).
She earned her degree in Bachelor of Science in Commerce (Major Accounting) at the Holy Cross of Davao College (Philippines) and diploma in Rural and Agricultural Project Planning at the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague, The Netherlands). Her fields of interest are migration, remittances, development, and microfinance. She is presently studying Master in Migration Studies at Miriam College (Manila).
Atty. Liza T. Tubilleja
Insurance Commission
May 5, 2010 Admitted to the Philippine Bar
IBP Roll No. 58785
2003–2006 BACHELOR OF LAWS, Adamson University, Manila
Dean’s Lister (2003-2005)
2002-2003 Bachelor of Laws (1st year), University of San Agustin, Iloilo City
1996-2001 BS ACCOUNTANCY
University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV), Iloilo City
