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| A photo of Atty. Lotilla being sworn in by PIDS Board Chairman and NEDA Director General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan. |
State
think tank Philippine Institute for
Development Studies welcomed former Energy Secretary Atty. Raphael Perpetuo M.
Lotilla on December 16, 2014 as the new member of its Board of Trustees. He
took his oath before PIDS Board Chairman and National Economic and Development
Authority (NEDA) Director General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio
M. Balisacan at the NEDA Head Office in Pasig.
Atty. Lotilla brings to the
Board his vast experience from years of government service and leadership. He replaces Dr.
Maria Cynthia Rose Banzon-Bautista whose term as PIDS Board member ended.
Aside from his stint at the
Department of Energy from 2005 to 2007, Atty. Lotilla’s sterling credentials
include teaching at the University of the Philippines College of Law, and
serving as former Deputy Director General of NEDA, President and CEO of the
Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), and the
Regional Programme Director of Partnerships in Environmental Managements for
the Seas of East Asia.
Representing NEDA Director
General and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, NEDA Deputy
Director General Emmanuel F. Esguerra confidently assured that, “with his
participation in the PIDS Board of Trustees, the PIDS will continue to be the
respected and prestigious institution that it is.”
Atty. Lotilla was grateful
for the welcome. He used the moment to thank his co-honoree and outgoing board
member Dr. Banzon-Bautista. “The legacy that she leaves is a challenge not only
for me but to all those who will be succeeding her,” he said.
Dr. Banzon-Bautista,
currently a CHED commissioner, was lauded at the dinner event by her peers and
colleagues for eight years of meritorious service as member of the Board.
“Besides being a sociologist
and educator, she is one of the country’s voices for educational reforms, and
she has held many roles in her career: as a professor, researcher, department
chair, dean, policy research director, CHED commissioner, and member of
international advisory boards – the list goes on,” enumerated Dr. Sheila V.
Siar of the PIDS Research Information Department who served as the event’s
master of ceremonies.
PIDS Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Aniceto C. Orbeta added to the praise, “I’ll not be very off if I say
because of her words of endorsement for PIDS, PIDS has become respected by many
universities. Because of that, and on behalf of the PIDS research family, I’d
like to say thanks.”
Esguerra, on behalf of
Secretary Balisacan, presented Dr. Bautista with a plaque of recognition and
appreciation for “her distinguished contributions to the sociological aspects
of the Institute’s development policy research agenda and program, and her
genuine concern for the welfare of the institute as a whole.”
PIDS President Gilberto
Llanto reflected, “It’s the good fortune of PIDS that the membership of the
board comes from the rank of professionals and people with integrity. [That way] it’s
shielded from political intervention. That’s the secret behind the kind of
reputation and good name that PIDS has earned through the years. We’ll continue
with this, and it will be so in the future.”
The honorees both expressed
their appreciation over the festivities and their sincere and deepest gratitude
to the Institute. Dr. Bautista bid her colleagues an amicable farewell, “I’m
very proud of PIDS, and I know you will be moving from strength to strength.
Thank you very much, I’m not used to this, but I am deeply touched.” (PIDS)
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