Dr. Calixto M. Protacio, executive director of PhilRice, designated three acting deputy executive directors (DED), effective January to December 2016.
Roger F. Barroga has been designated as acting DED for administration. Drs. Eduardo Jimmy P. Quilang and Flordeliza H. Bordey have been designated as acting deputies for research and for development, respectively.
Barroga currently leads FutureRice, a program that explores ways to increase current rice output using 21st century and practical cutting edge technologies. He was the former director of the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA), a consortium of stakeholders that enabled the Philippine agriculture benefit from modernized ICT. OpAPA was the recipient of the 2010 International Prize for Pioneering Human Development Projects awarded by the the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND).
Barroga holds Master’s degree in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
Quilang was PhilRice’s DED for Development from 2011 to 2015. Under his watch, several campaigns and special projects were launched such as the Palayabangan: The 10-5 Challenge, PalaYamaNayon: The Rural Transformation Movement, Be Riceponsible Campaign, Gusto Namin Milyonaryo Kayo Campaign, Best Station Contest, and Rice Science Museum.
The new DED for Research holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences specializing in Bioproduction Environmental Science from Kyushu University in Japan under the Monbukagakusho Scholarship.
Meanwhile, Bordey, an economist, was former head of PhilRice’s Socioeconomics Division. She leads the DA-FSSP-funded project titled Benchmarking the Philippine Rice Economy Relative to Major Rice-Producing Countries in Asia. In 2010, she was the program lead of the Impact evaluation, policy research and advocacy program of the Institute.
She obtained her PhD in Agricultural Economics at the University of Illinois in 2010 under the Fulbright – Philippine Agriculture Scholarship Program.
Bordey has been with PhilRice for more than 15 years and published papers on food policy, trade liberalization, production economics, impact assessment, and climate change.
The new DEDs are expected to oversee the preparation and implementation of various trans-disciplinary R&D programs of the Institute.
