6 other deans are reappointees.
Academic Year 2007–2008 saw the appointment of 10 deans, six of whom are returning for their consecutive term save for four.
The four newly appointed deans are Dr. Emmanuel De Dios of the School of Economics, Dr. Amaryllis Torres of the College of Social Work and Community Development, Dr. Candido Cabrido Jr. of the School of Urban and Regional Planning and Dr. José Danilo Silvestre of the College of Architecture.
Those who were reappointed are: Dr. Erlinda S. Echanis of the College of Business Adminisration, who will be serving until July 31, 2010; Dr. Ramón María Gamir Acoymo of the College of Music, who will be serving until July 23, 2010; Dr. Vivien M. Talisayon of the College of Education, who will be serving until July 21, 2010; Dr. Alex Brillantes of the National College of Public Administration, who will be serving until July 21, 2010 and Dr. Ma. Corazón P. Rodriguez of the Asian Institute of Tourism, who will be serving until July 21, 2010.
UPdate is putting the spotlight on these extraordinary educators.
Looking at Dr. Amaryllis Torres of the College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD), she seems like any ordinary professor. But this wonder woman is far from stereotype.
Trained as a psychologist at UPD where she earned her undergraduate and post-graduate degrees (BA in Psychology, 1965; MA in Psychology, 1973; Ph.D. in Psychology, 1981), Torres has emerged to become one of the country’s most respected figures in women studies and psychology.
She’s currently teaching Community Development at the CSWCD in the Department of Community Development and specializes in the fields of Community Development, Human Resource Development, Women’s Studies, Gender-Responsive Development Planning, Child Labor, Philippine Social Psychology, Social Development Research and Participatory Strategies and Monitoring and Evaluation Systems.
Torres was previously the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UPD from 1993 to 1996. Before that, she was the Director of the Office of Research Coordination from June to November 1993 and from September 1987 to August 1990.
Torres has direct experience in community development, having served as Executive Director of PROCESS Foundation, a non-profit organization working among landless rural populations (1989–1982). As a volunteer worker, she led in the implementation of community service programs provided by the Soroptimist International of Quezon City (SI Quezon City) in two barangays. SI Quezon City was named Most Outstanding Club in 2003–2004 and she was cited as Most Outstanding Club President for the same period.
She currently sits on the Board of Earthquakes and Mega-Cities Iniciatives, Inc, an international non-government organization (NGO) dedicated to the lessening of earthquake risk. She is also on the Board of the Third World Movement against the Exploitation of Women, another international NGO that gives services to abandoned, prostituted and exploited women.
Prior to that, she held the position of Gender Expert at the UNESCO Bangkok Project on Strengthening National Capacities of Ministries of Education in Implementing Gender Responsive EFA Plans from 2002 to 2004.
From 1997 to 1998, Torres was also the Chairperson of the Committee on Social and Human Sciences of the UNESCO National Commission.
Her expertise in the field was recognized by the Institute of Gender Studies in Ochanomizu University in Japan, and she was soon invited as a visiting professor.
Torres’ researches during this professorship produced several works, the latest of which is the ongoing English translation of her book Papel de Hapon: Life Histories of Filipina Women Migrants in Japan.
A prolific researcher and writer, she has contributed to publications such as The Politics of Women’s Education: Perspectives from Asia, Africa, and Latin America and co-authored works like Gender and Development: Making the Bureaucracy Gender-Responsive.
Torres’ work locally is even bigger, with books like Love in the Time of Ina Morata, tackling inter-generational sexuality practices and edited The Filipino Woman in Focus. Works in the journals 40 Years of Psychology: Philippine Journal of Psychology and the Philippine Journal of Psychology further establish her presence in the field. Even the Catholic Church is not spared her scrutiny, as evidenced by her article “The Church Reinforces Women’s Subordination” published in the newspaper The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
She also served as consultant to the Embassy of Switzerland in Vietnam during the International Workshop on Implementation and Enforcement Mechanisms for Gender Quality Legislation in Hanoi, Vietnam last December 2005.
In 2004 she was appointed as one of the Commissioners of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women.
Torres was also awarded a Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Studies in the Philippines by the Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines in 2000, the same year she was included in Baron magazine’s “Who’s Who of the Asia-Pacific Rim.” She is also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
In 1985 she was named an Outstanding Young Scientist by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) “In recognition of her researches in population, industrial psychology, social development and participatory strategies, and in evaluation studies, as well as her work on human development training.”
Few people are as fitting to lead the country’s only Center of Excellence in Economics and an institution with an active and internationally recognized Ph.D. program in economics as Dr. Emmanuel “Noel” S. De Dios.
fter graduating from Ateneo de Manila University with a cum laude degree in AB Economics in 1978, he was given a graduate fellowship by the UPSE 1978 to 1979.
He first joined UPD as an Instructor from 1980 to 1984 and diligently worked his way up until he became Director of the European Studies Programme of the UP Center of Integrative and Development Studies (UP-CIDS) from January 1996 to May 2000.
September of that year he was invited by St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin as a Visiting Professor for their Fall Term. He came back to the UPSE in May 2003 and served as Direcotr for Fellowships and Graduate Admissions till May 2005.
His last position before becoming Dean was as chair of the UPSE’s Department of Economics for the periods November 1989 to March 1991; June 1995 to May 1997; June 1998 to May 2000; December 2006 to April 2007 (a.i.) and May to August 2007.
Current Trustee and treasurer of the prestigious Ramón Magsaysay Awards Foundation, he was also a Research Fellow of Pulse Asia and Executive Director of the ASEAN Free Trade Area Advisory Commission. This is apart from his position as chair of CHED’s Technical Committee for Economics, Sub-panel on Humanities, Social Sciences and Communications.
In addition to having several degrees tucked under his belt, including a post-graduate fellowship from German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (1987–1988), De Dios continues to be one of the most active scholars in the country.
Some scholars would be content to sit on their laurels and watch the country like a mere passerby (or worse, leave its shores for greener pastures), but De Dios lends his expertise to analyze and prepare recommendations to aid the country’s economic growth through works like The Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Labour (1999), If We’re So Smart, Why Aren’t We Rich? Essays on Education and Economic Success (1995) and Economic Recovery and Long-Run Growth: Agenda for Reforms (1986).
This kind of nationalistic bent is also evidenced in articles like “Nationalism and the Strong State in the 1935 Constitution” in Philippine Review of Economics, “Corruption: A Framework and Context” in Public Policy and “A National Strategy to Fight Poverty,” a report for the Presidential Commission to Fight Poverty.
Such tenacity does not go unnoticed, and De Dios has been cited here and abroad for his achievements, the most recent of which is a Centennial Fellowship. He is one of the 12 who will give “Self-Reflection Lectures” in celebration of UP’s 100th year in 2008.
In 2006 he was given the Gawad Chancellor for Natatanging Guro (Outstanding Teacher) 2006. In 1984, he was given a Catholic Mass Media Award (Best Book in English) for his work An Analysis of the Philippine Economic Crisis: A Workshop Report.
Also this year, his book Philippine Human Development Report 2005: Peace, Human Security, and Human Development in the Philippines was awarded the Outstanding Book Award by the National Academy of Science and Technology.
Dr. Raul Fabella, his predecessor, wrote in a letter to the UPSE alumni that “the best years of the UP School of Economics are ahead of us...[that] ‘Camelot’ is in the best of hands!”
Dr. Candido Cabrido Jr. of the SURP carries a heavy weight on his shoulders. As the new head of SURP at the eve of the centennial, he is tasked with spearheading the school into its next metamorphosis.
Armed with a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from UP, an MS in Environmental Engineering from the Delft University in the Netherlands and more than a few honors under his belt including a course in Public Enterprise Management from Harvard University, Cabrido faces the future head-on.
This registered environment planner has worked in six countries, the list as diverse as the United Nations. In fact, he has worked for the United Nations, as a consultant for the organization’s sponsored projects here and abroad.
Even in the Philippines Cabrido has been involved with many projects of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. One of the discipline’s most active figures, he has published and co-authored in numerous articles in books and periodicals, the latest of which is entitled “Zonation of the Environmentally Critical Areas Network for Sustainable Environmental Management,” a report in the conference proceedings of the 25th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing in Thailand in 2004.
In addition, Cabrido is also the Sustainable Development Advisor for Shell’s B. V. Malampaya Natural Gas Project apart from his duties as Associate Professor 7 at the SURP.
Cabrido brings all these experiences to the SURP, as he envisions it as a “globally competitive learning and research institution in the fields of urban, rural and regional planning…as a center for learning and research in the development of innovative theories, tools and sustainable practices in urban, rural and regional planning that are adapted to developing countries.”
For now, he aims to enrich the curriculum and establish areas of specialization, upgrade the teaching and research facilities, enhance competencies of the faculty and staff on novel and advanced planning methods and techniques, mobilize resources to improve the school’s physical facilities, support faculty and staff development and expand scholarship programs, strengthen and expand linkages and networks with international organizations and foreign universities for joint academic programs, exchange of faculty, joint research projects and training programs and finally increase enrollment of planners from poor municipalities through cross subsidies and scholarships.
Judging from his boyish looks and youth, Dean José Danilo “Danny” Silvestre could easily pass for one of the students in the sprawling UPCA compound. This hotshot is all ready to shake the foundations of the college.
Silvestre joined the faculty of the CA in 1991 after completing his MA in Community Architecture there. He took his undergraduate education at UPD, graduating with a BS in Architecture, magna cum laude in 1979.
In his 17 years of service to the college, he has served as the head of the Urban Design Laboratory (1999-2005); Head of the Design Laboratory (2006-present); Director for Research (1999-2000/2003-2005) and Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 7th Inter-University Seminar on Asian Megacities (IUSAM), which the college hosted in 2002. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the UP College of Architecture Alumni Foundation Inc. as Vice President (1995–1998 and 2004–2007).
Since 1999, Silvestre has been the representative of the CA to the IUSAM affiliation and participated and presented papers at the annual IUSAM conferences hosted by Keio University, Seoul National University, National Taiwan University, Tsinghua University, Chulalongkorn University and the Chinese University of HK. In 2004, he was invited to deliver lectures at the School of Urban Design at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
He hopes to further strengthen the linkages with the IUSAM affiliate institutions through mutual student/faculty exchanges, research collaboration and other cooperative projects, having negotiated two memoranda of agreements with the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.
Silvestre is both a licensed Professional Architect and a licensed Environmental Planner. A member of the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) since 1985, he was elevated to the College of Fellows in 1999 and has also served as a past president of the UAP Diliman Chapter. He is also a member of the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners, and has served twice as a National Director (1998–1999/2000–2001).
He placed second in the Professional Licensure Examination for Architecture 1980. In 1984, he founded his own architectural design consultancy firm, DA Silvestre & Associates (DASA), which has been in continuous operation since then and currently provides architectural, urban design and urban planning services to both private and corporate clients.
Recent buildings of note include the Sotero H. Laurel Building at the Lyceum of Batangas, the José P. Laurel Building at the Lyceum Institute of Technology in Calamba, the new Annex Building to the Southeast Asian Colleges Inc (SACI) and the new Building 1 of the UP College of Architecture. He is currently preparing the architectural design for “Ciudad”, a mixed-use heritage-themed development in Cebu City and the new Carmeltown Town Center in Canlubang, Laguna.
As the sixth dean, Silvestre hopes to continue the primacy of the CA as an academic Center of Excellence with a specific focus on reviewing and reorienting its current curriculum toward addressing the crucial environmental concerns that challenge architecture and landscape architecture.
Silvestre also has taken it upon himself to strengthen the external relationships with other universities initially in Asia, but also eventually in Europe and the United States.
The alumni of the College are also its essential link to the industry, and he has prioritized this relationship to help the college improve both its financial and infrastructure resources.
He is also undertaking several projects for the coming centennial.