U.P. ECON DEAN APPOINTED AS ACTING PLANNING SECRETARY

Balisacan vows to focus on addressing poverty, build on Paderanga’s achievements

MANILA—President Benigno S. Aquino III recently appointed the dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UPSE) as Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan will take over the post vacated by Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr., who resigned due to personal reasons.

“I am grateful to the President not only for giving me the opportunity to serve the Cabinet for the second time, but also for understanding the reasons why I decided to leave,” said Paderanga, who will be turning 64 years old this year.

Paderanga was also appointed to the same position from 1990 to 1992 during the administration of President Corazon C. Aquino, the mother of the current President.

“NEDA will be in good hands with Dean Balisacan,” said Paderanga, who is also Balisacan’s colleague at the UPSE.

Acknowledged in Asia as a leading expert on poverty and known as a leading development economist in Southeast Asia, Balisacan, who leaves his academic post for this new appointment, said he would build on the achievements and reforms paved by Paderanga.

“Sec. Paderanga has led in instituting changes in the planning, investment programming and M&E (monitoring and evaluation) processes within NEDA and the government. We will build on these reforms as we focus on reducing poverty and attaining inclusive growth that leaves no one behind,” said Balisacan.

As Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director-General, Balisacan will concurrently chair the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), and Philippine Center for Economic Development (PCED).

Balisacan will also be the vice-chair of the NEDA Board, the country’s highest development planning and policy coordinating body chaired by the President, as well as head of several interagency committees under the NEDA Board.

Prior to his UPSE deanship, Balisacan was Director-Chief Executive of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) from 2003 to 2009, and Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture in 2000, 2001 and 2003.

While serving as Agriculture Undersecretary, he was the country’s chief negotiator in the Agriculture Negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in various bilateral agriculture negotiations. Prior to joining the University of the Philippines, he was a research fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu, and an economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Author and co-author of several books on the Philippine economy, poverty, and rural development, Balisacan has served as President of various professional organizations, including Philippine Economic Society, Human Development Network, and Asian Society of Agricultural Economists.

Balisacan holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Hawaii, a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from UP Los Baños, and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture (magna cum laude) from the Mariano Marcos State University.

MR No. 2012-036

07 May 2012