Filtered By: Topstories
News

PNoy names new NEDA chief; Paderanga stepping down for health reasons


President Benigno Aquino III has appointed University of the Philippines School of Economics dean and professor Arsenio Balisacan as the country’s acting socio-economic planning secretary, following the resignation of Cayetano Paderanga Jr.

New acting NEDA chief Dean Arsenio Balisacan. GMA News
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte on Saturday said Aquino signed Balisacan’s appointment papers last May 10, after National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA chief Paderanga said he was stepping down for health reasons. “Sec. Paderanga has signified his intention to step down for health reasons.... He has been in service to this administration for the last two years,” Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. Valte said Paderanga met with Aquino and told him of his intention to step down, but did not give further details. Paderanga had also served under the administration of Aquino’s late mother Corazon, heading the NEDA from 1990 to 1992. “We’re very happy to have worked with Sec. Paderanga. We thank him for the help he has given to the president,” Valte said. A background information on Balisacan from the UP School of Economics showed he is also an Adjunct Professor of Australian National University, Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Economic Development, and Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology. On secondment from UP, he was the Director (Chief Executive) of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in 2003-2009 and Undersecretary at the Department of Agriculture in 2000-2001 and 2003. While in government, he was the country’s chief negotiator in the World Trade Organization Agriculture Negotiations and in various bilateral agriculture negotiations. Before joining the UP faculty in 1987, he was Research Fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu and Economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He served as adviser and expert in poverty, food security, agricultural and rural development, human development, impact assessment, and governance issues to public chief executives and legislators, non-governmental organizations, and multilateral development institutions, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and various United Nations agencies. Also, he authored or co-edited seven books and has published about 100 academic papers and book chapters. His book publications include:
- Poverty, Urbanization, and Development Policy (UP Press) - The Dynamics of Regional Development (Edward Elgar, UK, co-edited with H. Hill) - Reasserting the Rural Development Agenda (ISEAS, Singapore, co-edited with N. Fuwa) - The Philippine Economy (Oxford University Press, New York, co-edited with H. Hill).
He founded and continues to serve as editor of the Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, an internationally refereed journal. Balisacan held leadership positions in professional associations, including:
- President of the Philippine Economic Society in 2006 - President of the Human Development Network in 2003-2009 - Founding Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Agricultural Policy Forum in 2003-2006 - Executive Secretary of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2003-2009.
Currently, he is President of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economists. Balisacan teaches Development Economics, Agricultural Economics, and Special Topics on Poverty, Inequality, and Institutions. Meanwhile, Valte belied speculations Paderanga was made to resign. “It was Sec. Paderanga who went to the president and said resign na siya (he wanted to resign), he has health problems so gusto niya (and he wanted) to turn it over to somebody else,” she said. — LBG, GMA News
LOADING CONTENT