Visitors to NCPAG over the past several years will not fail to notice a huge tarpaulin posted in the lobby of our College proudly proclaiming that Our Students are Among the Best Assets of NCPAG. Indeed, students are central to the raison d’etre of any educational institution.
After they graduate, our students become our alumni. Thus among the Most Valuable Assets and Resources of the College are its Alumni. There is an equally huge tarp in the atrium of the College with the bold exhortation Paglingkuran ang Sambayanan! ( Serve the People! ) And when our alumni fulfill our College's vision of serving the people and our nation in whatever capacity, they make us proud. Our alumni have served as inspiration to our students. We are, therefore, happy to partner with our alumni in the preparation of this publication. It features our outstanding alumni through the years with the hope that they will continue to serve as models and sources of inspiration for the NCPAG community. Some occupy high and influential positions in their work places, while others simply work quietly. But one thing that binds them all is that they have dedicated their lives to serving our people and our nation.
In behalf of the administration of the National College of Public Administration and Governance, the faculty and staff, we would like to report to our alumni the NCPAG Team's efforts to improve our College in various spheres. Hopefully, as you have made us proud, we also have made you proud. I have decided to use the acronym of our beloved college – NCPAG - to frame the rest of this message that describe our thrusts over the past six years: N for Network expansion; C for Curriculum and academic improvement; P for Physical facilities upgrading; A for Alumni and student relations; and G for Governance improvement. Let me emphasize that all these accomplishments
have been achieved through the cooperation, hard work, and support of the NCPAG community and our University officials, especially our Chancellor and President. More importantly, as we have always emphasized, we have built upon the hard earned gains of those who have gone before us, making it easier for us to confront the many challenges and overcome the numerous obstacles over the past many years.
Networking. Over the past few years, we have emphasized the imperative to network with our many partners – local and international – that have been developed over the past decades. We have, therefore, continued and strengthened our linkages with our international partners through the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA) (of which we serve as the secretariat), the Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance (NAPSIPAG), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and our many international partners. Locally, we revitalized the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines (ASPAP) of which we serve as secretariat. We advocated the adoption of the Raul de Guzman's “town and gown” approach to development among our ASPAP schools where the academic institution (gown) works in partnership with the local government (town) in addressing basic governance issues. Our networking efforts with Gawad Kalinga have been a big plus to the College. The appointment of Mr. Tony Meloto, Gawad Kalinga founder, as a Fellow of the Center for Leadership, Citizenship, and Democracy (CLCD), and our participation in various Gawad Kalinga “builds” has enabled the NCPAG community an opportunity to sharpen and deepen the praxis of public administration education. The “builds” of GK have also provided the opportunity to address the problem of violence on campus brought about by fraternity rumbles and hazing. The project of the NCPAG Student Council and the GK entitled “From Rumbles to Rubbles” provided a venue for rival fraternities in the College to channel their efforts to build homes for the homeless in a cooperative fashion rather than spending energies on senseless frat violence.
Curriculum and Academic Excellence. We have devoted a lot of our energies to improving our curriculum towards our collective vision of academic excellence. After serious studies and debates, including evaluation and introspection, the Faculty has revised and strengthened the MPA curriculum with the restoration of the fields of specialization for the MPA program. We have likewise begun the process of reviewing our DPA curriculum with our NCPAG resident intellectual Prof Danilo R. Reyes taking the lead. Our BAPA curriculum continues to be under review. We have also responded to the needs and demands of our rapidly changing environment by crafting special MPA programs for some groups like the staff of the Philippine Congress. We have played a key role in the academic component of the training for Young Muslim Leaders – a program of the Congress of the Philippines supported by USAID - over the past several years. Our publications program also contributed immensely to academic and curriculum improvement, especially with the updating of the Philippine Journal of Public Administration (PJPA), one of first academic journals of public administration in the region that is now on its 52nd year.
Our faculty members have also instituted teaching innovations by making our courses more grounded to the real world, locally and globally. Some faculty members have made efforts to conduct part of their courses in the real world of local governments, from Laoag to Baguio to Naga City in Camarines Sur to Iloilo , from Cebu to Davao . In partnership with the Galing Pook Foundation and in line with linking theory and practice of public administration (praxis), the winners of the Galing Pook Program have also come to the College to deliver special lectures within the context of highlighting good and best practices in local governance. To further globalize the perspectives of our students in this rapidly flattening world, some courses have incorporated visits and lectures to foreign academic institutions, including the National Institute of Development Administration, Thammasat University and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand ; the National Institute of Public Administration – INTAN - in Malaysia ; Soongsil University in Korea ; and Guangzhou University and Xiamen University in China . We also have been privileged to have as lecturers faculty members from Korea , the US and India . The quality of the faculty has a direct correlation with academic excellence. Faculty development has also been a thrust over the past years with the recruitment of new faculty members. I am happy to report that a number of our faculty members participated in many local and international conferences, and have received the International Publications Awards of the University, and also the UP Diliman Centennial Professorial Chair awards and grants, all within the context of our continuing pursuit of academic excellence in teaching, research and publication.
Physical Facilities Improvement . With support from our alumni and NCPAG friends, we have embarked on the improvement of the facilities of NCPAG. Good facilities are conducive to a learning environment. We thus constructed the following: the NCPAG Governance Dome and the Assembly Hall, the latter being carved out of a largely unused space in the second floor of the library (we do not have to rent facilities anymore during our annual recognition rites); a modern Case Room (carved out of the largely underutilized space of the cafeteria that has been improved with the addition of a outdoor eating area); an Atrium that essentially has served as a gathering place for big student and academic events, but still retaining the outdoor ambiance with the preservation of its trees: the rehabilitation of CPAGE, PO and EROPA offices; the construction of the student tambayan complete with wifi facilities; construction of an alumni office (carved out of the unused corridor space behind the dean's office); and the NCPAGAA Friendship Garden and the Graduate Walk, dedicated to the alumni and graduates of the College. We are also working on generating resources for our proposed Local Governance Training Room and the National Center for Good Governance.
Alumni and Student Relations. As I mentioned at the outset, the students and alumni are among the best assets of NCPAG. Hence, developing, fostering and strengthening relations with the alumni has been one thrust. And they have been very responsive. The support of the alumni has been extremely critical. We, therefore, express our gratitude to the Alumni Association headed by its President and Vice President, Herbert Bautista and Rey Tagudando, and the rest of the officers namely: Frederick Mikhail Farolan, Ma. Fenny Cantero-Tatad, Jejomar Binay, Jr., Annalyn Sevilla, Edmundo Casiño, Judith Stephanie Garcia, Rafael de Guzman, Ismael Khan, Jr., Miguel Rafael Musngi, and Perla Arceño-Segovia for their unwavering support and dedication to the welfare of the College. Indeed, the alumni are among the best assets, resources and partners of the College!
Governance Improvement. At the center of the raison d'etre of NCPAG is contribution to the improvement of governance in the country at the local and national levels. Governance improvement has been the driving ideology of the different units of the College: the Center for Public Administration and Governance Education headed by Professor Mila Reforma and, later, by Professor Dan Saguil; the Center for Local and Regional Governance headed by Professor Simeon Ilago; the Center for Policy and Executive Development, headed by Professor Joel Mangahas and, later, Professor Rizal Cruz, and Professor Noriel Tiglao; the Center for Citizenship, Leadership and Democracy headed by Professor Oliva Zipagan Domingo; the Publications Office headed by Professor Vicente Mariano; the Library, headed by Ms. Perla Patacsil and, later, Mr. Lyle Mana-ay; and our Administrative Office headed by Ms. Estrella Ocampo, and, later, by Mr. Lito Aurelio. Our efforts to governance improvement have gone beyond the walls of the classroom. Among other things, we instituted the Diliman Governance Forum that brought together practitioners and academics to advocate good governance and analyze and debate burning issues of the day, and ranging from decentralization and local governance, to reorganization and reinventing government, to the prevention of graft and corruption, to environmental governance, to information communication and technology, to electoral reform, among other things. Our tie-up with Gawad Kalinga has enabled us to adopt new paradigms in approaching governance challenges by bringing together government, business and civil society in addressing poverty. Our continuing linkage with Galing Pook has emphasized how governance problems may be best approached from the frontline local and community level, where the rubber hits the road, so to speak.
In behalf of the NCPAG community, we express our gratitude to our alumni and our many local and international partners for the privilege and honor of working with you over the past many years as we collectively pursue our ideals for good governance and a better Philippines.
We look forward to continuing this exciting partnership with you in the years to come. This book is dedicated to you.
Alex B. Brillantes, Jr. Dean
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