Our sincere congratulations and thanks to the organizers of the highly successful Usapang Mayor! Forum convenor was our colleague Professor Edna Co, who worked with STPA, Filipino Matters, AGSA and of course our very own College. The the event was highly successful. There was substance to the discussions, there were meaningful exchanges among the candidates (Bautista, Defensor, Inton, Mathay and Chang) and also with the audience, and there were light moments too! (The quiz bee portion was fun and light.) And of course the attendance was smashing! Congratulations again, Edna and organizers.

I had our building administrator and architect check the supposed "cracks" by the stair case to the assembly hall. No cause for alarm, we have been assured since the crack is a natural occurrence between the addded component of the building and the main building. They will, however, repair and fortify the joints.

Alex B. Brillantes Jr, PhD
Dean
National College of Public Administration and Governance
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City

I just received a congratulatory note from the organizers of the "Beyond 2010: An Academic Congress," the 5 day colloquium on various aspects of Philippine society, politics and development that was held at Malcolm Hall from February 1 to 5. They congratulated us for our successful panel on Elections and Beyond: How to Choose Leaders that was held the morning of February 5. Indeed, those of you attended that full packed Malcolm theatre will agree that the presentations of our colleagues led by Dr Abueva, together with Professors Briones, Edna Co and Ebbie Florano, went very well and stimulated a lively - and enlightening - discussion among the participants. Thanks and congratulations again!

The panel follows two equally successful fora that were earlier held at NCPAG.

One is the forum organized by the STPA under the guidance and stewardship of Professor Ebbie Florano, (Mga kandidatong Makakalikasan: May Boboto Ba) that featured Senator Loren Legarda, Former Congressman Neric Acosta, Presidential Candidate Nic Perlas, Professor Leonor Briones, among others. The audience included students from University of Makati, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology, Caloocan University, and, of course, NCPAG, among others. The very lively presentation of the panelists followed by the equally lively - and controversial - open forum that followed was a learning event for us all. Our congratulations to STPA and Professor Florano!

Earlier, we also had another rare event when we held the Diliman Governance Forum organized by our Congressional Scholars PA 208 class together with my PA 201 class last 22 January that featured former CSC Chairs Patricia Sto Tomas, Cora de Leon, Karina David, and Ric Saludo.

May I also inform the NCPAG family that we continue to work on the international linkages of NCPAG. I am happy to let you know that we hope to facilitate the signing of MOUs between the Chancellor representing UP and NCPAG, and several academic institutions abroad that will also broaden our international linkages. I am grateful that a committee of our faculty led by Professor Lily Domingo agreed to help develop and refine these linkages. These linkages include Meiji University in Japan, Ho Chi Minh University in Vietnam, 2 universities in Korea, 1 University in Chile (a linkage facilitated by Senator Angara and President Roman) and the National Institute of Development Administration - NIDA - of Thailand. (In fact, I am writing this note from Bangkok where I am with my PA 208 students - our congressional scholars - and are being hosted by NIDA). Apart from NIDA, we will have special lectures at Thammassat University, Chulalungkorn University, Mahidol University, and visits and lectures at the Thai National Parliament and the Ombudsman.

May I also inform you of two very imporatant events: this coming February 15, Monday, we shall have our I LOVE NCPAG Day where, we shall come together as an NCPAG family together with our retirees and couples who met here at NCPAG just to declare our continued loyalty and commitment to our beloved NCPAG, and also have fun.

On the 18th of February, through the initiative of Professor Edna Co and the AGSA, we shall be having a forum of the mayoral candidates of Quezon City at the Assembly Hall. As in previous fora, we look forward not only to the active participation of all sectors of NCPAG but also, and more importantly, an enlightening forum.

Thank you to all and let us continue to work together as a team - students, faculty, staff, and alumni - as we collectively work towards our vision of better public administration and good governance.

Alex B. Brillantes Jr, PhD
Dean
National College of Public Administration and Governance
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City

Dean's Message

Alex B. Brillantes, Jr., PhD
Professor and Dean

Mabuhay and greetings to all our partners and friends in the collective advocacy for responsive public administration and good governance!

Last year – 2008 – was a banner year for our College and our beloved University that celebrated its centennial. With the leadership of our President Emerlinda Roman and Chancellor Sergio Cao, we actively participated in a number of events and activities to joyously celebrate this milestone in our University’s life. We also made some advances and strides in improving our academic program and revising the MPA curriculum, and continued to deliver our own version of basic services to our stakeholders – improved courses, training program and the analysis of burning public administration and governance issues of the day through the Diliman Governance Forums (DGF) and more. The DGF is on its way to being institutionalized as a regular forum where burning governance issues of the day – from corruption to decentralization to reorganization to mining and environment to civil service reforms, etc. - are discussed, analyzed and debated by various stakeholders representing all sides of the issue.

In a way, our activities for 2008 were in several ways an attempt to honor our University and to live up to its values and traditions. As we celebrated the UP Centennial, we were strongly reminded of the historical and continuing importance of the University in national affairs. One of our very first activities in the UP centennial year is the colloquium “Is There a Philippine Public Administration?” This is a question that we asked in 1986 where we asked experts in public administration – Raul P. de Guzman and Onofre D. Corpuz – to address. The results were published in issue of the Philippine Journal of Publc Administration. Two decades later, we organized a colloquium to revisit this same question. I am happy to report to the community that the papers presented in the colloquium have been published in the 2008 issue of the Philippine Journal of Public Administration. This special issue was edited by Professor Danilo Reyes. To ensure greater access to the Journal, we are now on line where this issue and other issues of the Journal may be downloaded from our website. We received modest support from the UNDP governance program for the colloquium and the publication for which we are very grateful.

We are therefore happy and proud to announce that we have updated the Philippine Journal of Public Administration, the first journal of its kind in the Asian region. Considering that this is the Centennial of the University, we have dedicated the 2008 issues of the PJPA to the UP Centennial

Indeed, publications occupy a central role in the life of the academic community. It is within this context that, apart from the PJPA, we also launched a number of other publications to commemorate our Centennial:

We are therefore proud to present new titles available at our Publications Office. In May, we published Gladys Sta. Maria’s first book Running a Bureaucracy. Gladys who is herself a proud UP alumnus is the longest serving provincial administrator in the country. Her UP education and decades-long experience in the field provide the backbone to this piece of writing that can serve as a veritable guide to all aspiring and serving public administrators.

Very much dedicated to the centennial celebration is the book written by former UP President and NCPAG’s very own Professor Emeritus Jose V. Abueva. Under the auspices of the College’s Center for Leadership and Democracy (CLCD), Dr. Abueva completed the manuscript for his newest publication entitled Reinventing U.P. as the National University: Learning for Truth, Leadership and Social Transformation. Dr. Abueva presented the ideas in this book in the Centennial Lecture series co-organized by the College with the University System.

Then, of course, we published a number of working papers out of the DGF. These included:

1. Fostering Democratic Governance: Sustaining the Gains and Learning from the Pains. Working Paper Series No. 10;
2. Shepherding Reforms in Access to Justice and Participation on the Disadvantaged Sectors. Working Paper Series No. 9;
3. The Challenges and Prospects of Sustainable Mining in the Philippines. Working Paper Series No 8;
4. Trade on Human Relations. Makatao Pa Ba? Working Paper Series No. 7;
5. Does Regulation Matter? An Assessment of its Effects, Impacts and Challenges in Serving Public Interest. Working Paper Series No. 6. March 2008;
6. Public Administration and Democratic Governance: Breakout, Breakdown and Breakthrough. Working Paper Series No. 5; and
7. Fifteen Years of Decentralization in the Philippines: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward. Working Paper Series No. 4.

As we strongly proclaim in NCPAG, our battlecry is “Paglingkuran ang Sambayanan” and the centennial spirit definitely made this reverberate even more inside and outside our halls. This year, 2009, we once again rally behind the maroon and green flag as our UP Beloved chart and define another hundred years of service to the nation.

It is within the context of the above that this year, 2009, we will continue to build upon our hard earned gains and sustain our collective efforts as we move closer to our goal of improved public administration and good, or at the very least good enough, governance.

We shall now move to the next level of our curriculum review. We have revised and improved our MPA curriculum the past years. We will now review our DPA curriculum.

We are also marketing our one year MPA program. Under the leadership of our newly appointed Secretary of Studies Professor Dan Saguil, we have embarked on a vigorous campaign to market our one year MPA program. We hope to target not only senior officials of government but also attract more foreign students as well to the program.

We shall pursue the improvement of our publications especially our Philippine Journal of Public Administration . We anticipate a special issue of the PJPA in 2009 focusing on good governance, accountability and anti-corruption. We are in the process of seeking recognition and accreditation of the PJPA as an ISI accredited international journal. This year, we shall also launch more books – on leadership, decentralization and good governance. In cooperation with our alumni – headed by its President Herbert Bautista and Vice President Reynaldo Tagudando – we shall launch several projects, including the publication of a coffee table book featuring the outstanding alumni of alumni. Our alumni continue to serve as inspiration to the graduates of NCPAG.

We will continue to build and nurture our international ties. Apart from strengthening our role in EROPA and NAPSIPAG, we have initiated the partnerships with other universities in the regions including Meiji University in Tokyo and the National Institute of Development Administration in Bangkok.

Locally, we continue to play a key role in the Association of Schools of Public Administration of the Philippines (ASPAP). Because of its performance and track record, the past year has seen ASPAP attract funding support from a number of international agencies and partners including the UNDP and the World Bank, This year, we shall continue to build upon these gains. Among other things, with the support of UNDP, we hope to deepen the network of the ASPAP by taking advantage of the opportunities provided by information technology.

This year we shall continue to improve our facilities and infrastructure. The garden fronting the students' tambayan shall be improved into a friendship garden that shall serve as a venue for continued student and interaction and fellowship, including a graduate walk that the graduates shall symbolically cross on their way to the governance dome, as part of our graduation program. Of course it is our hope that we shall be able to begin construction of our new building, the National Center for Good Governance, with funding support from Senator Aquilino Pimentel and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

These are only some of our collective accomplishments that past year and our plans for the coming year. With the whole NCPAG community coming together, – students, alumni, local and international partners, staff and faculty – and with the support of President Roman and Chancellor Cao, we have every reason to believe that NCPAG shall continue to perform its role (and fulfill its responsibility) as the premier school of public administration in the country.

Ipagpatuloy natin and paglingkod sa sambayanan!

Alex B. Brillantes, Jr., PhD
Professor and Dean