DR. JOSE VELOSO ABUEVA
He is a Professor Emeritus of Public Administration and Political Science in UP since 1998. Dr. Jose “Ka Pepe” Abueva earned his doctorate degree in Political Science and Sociology in the University of Michigan in 1959. He had been a U.P. graduate study fellow of the U.S. Mutual Security Agency for Foreign Operations Administration and became one of the forerunners of US/AID. He had been a fellow of the Agricultural Development Council and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is the President of the Kalayaan College of Quezon City since 2001. He was the president of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City in 1987 – 1993 and became one of its Chancellors in 1990-1991.
Ka Pepe is a devoted academician and has been a full pledge contributor to the development in the socio-political landscape of the country for the last five decades. He continues to serve the Filipino people and the youth in pushing for a Federal Philippines and in the achievement of centrist democracy amongst the Filipinos. At present, Dr. Abueva assumed chairmanship of the Board of Advisers of the Centrist Democracy Political Institute for the year 2017.
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CHIEF JUSTICE REYNATO S. PUNO
Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno is the 22nd Chief Justice of the Philippines. He was the Chairperson of the Supreme Court First Division and ex officio Chairperson of both the Presidential Electoral Tribunal and the Judicial Bar Council. His appointment as Chief Magistrate on 7 December 2006 was a moment that many had anticipated from the time he was sworn in on 28 June 1993 as the 131st member of the Supreme Court, then the youngest Justice at 53. Prior to his promotion to the High Court, he was, among others, appointed to the Court of Appeals at the age of 40, the youngest appointee after the law fixed the age of appointment at 40.
Chief Justice Puno obtained his Bachelor of Science in Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of the Philippines in 1962. He pursued his postgraduate studies in the United States, all on full scholarship. He obtained his Master of Comparative Laws at the Southern Methodist University, Texas, with high distinction as class valedictorian in 1967; his Master of Laws at the University of California, Berkeley in 1968; and finished all the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor Juridical Science at the University of Illinois, Champaign in 1969. He became the first Filipino recipient of the Distinguished Global Alumnus Award given by the Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University, Texas, on 31 March 2005, and has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees by nine local universities, as well as by the Hannam University, South Korea.
Among many honors, he was the recipient of The People’s Magistrate Award by the Philippine Constitution Association and Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Award for Nationalism by the Federation of Catholic Schools Alumni Association in 2009. He was recognized as Most Outstanding Alumnus during the University of the Philippines’ centennial year in 2008.
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MR. PHILIP G. CAMARA
Co-Convener of Subsidiarity Movement International. As a co-convener of the Subsidiarity Movement International, he Advocates for the bottom-up development model as well as proper decentralization to the lowest possible capable unit that is closest to the people served. Aside from that, Mr. Camara is one of the co-conveners of the Federalist Forum of the Philippines which advocates for the strengthening of regional governance for better program design, control of corruption, countering local dynasties and fostering integrated area development.
He was a consultant at Philippine Alternative Fuels Corporation (PAFC) which studied for the Jatropha Bio-diesel Project in 2007-2008. He was one of the board of trustees of the HARIBON Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources which is a non-stock, non-profit environmental organization that pioneer Wildlife Protection and Conservation in the Philippines.
Mr. Camara studied Bachelor of Science in Agri-Business Management in the University of the Philippines at Los Baños and earned his MS in Agro-Industrial Development at the Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts and graduated with excellence.
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MR. LITO MONICO C. LORENZANA
Mr. Lorenzana is the current president and chairperson of the board of the Centrist Democracy Political Institute. He was the chairperson of the board and president of the Technical Assistance Center for the Development of Rural and Urban Poor (TACDRUP), an NGO based in Davao City that served largely the communities in Southern Mindanao for the last 35 years.
Mr. Lorenzana earned his Master in Public Administration in the Harvard University – Kennedy School of Government and was the first president of the Harvard-KSG Alumni Association of the Philippines. He was recruited by the Cory Aquino Government to her cabinet and assumed the positions of undersecretary of the departments of local government (DLG) and environment and natural resources (DENR). Subsequently he also served the administrations of Presidents Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo in various capacities as Commissioner of Kabisig, Edsa People Power Commission, Charter Change Commission and the Chairman of the Charter Change Advocacy Commission. He sat on various corporate boards of government and private corporations and consultant for the NRMP program of the World Bank, the USAID and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
In the political arena, he was one of the founders of the PDP Laban with Nene Pimentel; fathered the Successor Generation with Rey Teves and with Peter Koeppinger he was a co-convenor of the Centrist Democratic Movement Federation and the current President of the Centrist Democratic Party: Ang Partido ng Tunay na Demokrasya.
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MR. BENEDIKT SEEMANN
Benedikt Seemann is currently the Country Director of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s (KAS) Philippines Office. He oversees KAS’ various projects in the Philippines in the fields of the rule of law, strengthening democracy and human rights. KAS focuses strongly on promoting a social market economy, institutional and political reforms, and peaceful development in Mindanao.
Prior to joining KAS, Benedikt Seemann served as chief of staff to a whip at the German Parliament (Christian Democrats’ Parliamentary Group). He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Public Law, having studied at the University of Trier (Germany) and Hong Kong Baptist University.
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DR. PETER KOEPPINGER 
Dr. Peter Koeppinger is the current project director of the European Union - Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (EU-KAS) Philippines Partnerships for Integrity and Jobs Project (Project I4J). A former resident representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in the Philippines (2009-2014), he served as one of the co-convenors of the Centrist Democratic Movement (CDM) of the Philippines in years 2010 to 2011 and has been the foreign political consultant of the Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines: Ang Partido ng Tunay na Demokrasya (CDP) from its establishment in 2012 and at present.
In his capacity as KAS country representative, he has served several countries in Asia such as in Vietnam and Cambodia. Even if he is present in Asia for plenty of years now, he remains to be a member in good status of his political party in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
As a political scientist and a political technocrat, Dr. Koeppinger’s life evolved mostly in the promotion of democracy in the third world countries. Aside from that, he worked with the German Parliament and the Christian Democratic Union, one of the two leading political parties in Germany. He also worked as a consultant on political, legal and economic issues in Vietnam and Cambodia and worked closely with the European Parliament and European Commission in Brussels.
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Prof. Edmund Tayao is currently the Executive Director of the Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF), a non-government organization established in 1989 and works closely with Leagues of Local Government, the DILG and various groups and development organizations to enhance local government capacity and promote decentralization. In 2009, Prof. Tayao, the leagues and other likeminded groups formed the Philippine Consortium on Good Local Governance (PCGLG) where he is now the founding Secretary General.Prof. Tayao is also a Professor of Political Science at the University of Santo Tomas, currently on sabbatical as Fellow of Political Science at the Leibniz University of Hanover in Germany. He has published several papers and books on politics and governance and presented in various conferences here and abroad. Since 1998, he has been policy consultant to some political leaders and even to select government agencies and development organizations. He is also a Political Analyst at the ANC, ABS-CBN, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and writes for Rappler on some key political issues.
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MS. MARIA LOURDES TIQUIA
She has been a former talk show host at CNN Philippines. Ms. Tiquia acquired twenty-nine progressive and professional years of experience in private, public, non-government sectors and the academe. She founded PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. (PAI) in 2003 and works as the General Manager who principally handles lobbying/government relations, political campaigns and competitive intelligence for PUBLiCUS. Malou is also the lead convenor of the Association of Political Consultants in Asia (APCA) and Jasmine Stands (JS). APCA is a not-for- profit organization of political consultants in Asia while JS is an organization that supports women Asian women in politics. She served the Philippine Government for 15 years in both the Executive and Legislative branches. She worked in the 100th Congress of the United States as a Congressional Fellow in the Subcommittee on Environment of the U.S. House of Representatives (Rep. James Scheuer, Democrat-NY) and as a personal staff to Sen. John Seymour, Republican-CA). Ms. Tiquia has a long experience in lobbying or government relations, political management, strategic communications and competitive intelligence.
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PROF. MARIO ANTONIO G. LOPEZ
Professor Mayo Lopez teaches primarily for the Master in Management Program (MM) of the W. SyCip Graduate School of Business (WSGSB), and also teaches programs at the Center for Development Management (CDM) and the Executive Education and Lifelong Learning Center (EXCELL). He has served as Assistant Dean for EXCELL and Associate Dean for the CDM. Mayo continues to have a varied multi-sector, multi-industry and multinational consulting career, and works with corporations, not-for-profit organizations and government agencies -- both civilian and military -- in strategic national, sector, and corporate planning; human resources and organizational development; project development and management; policy analyses; and economic-political risk assessment.
Mayo is active in the Management Association of the Philippines' Agribusiness and Countryside Development and National Issues committees. He was a trustee of the Philippine Local Government Academy, and is a trustee of the Philippine Center for Futuristics Research. He was also a Director of the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) Alumni Association of the Philippines. He was a member of the National Council of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, the Technical Panel of the Bishops'-Businessmen's Conference for Human Development, the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations, the Philippine Sociological Society, and is a lifetime member of the Corporate Planning Society of the Philippines.
Mayo holds a Master in Business Management from the Asian Institute of Management (1970) and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government (1975) as a joint Center for Population Studies and Edward S. Mason Fellow for Economic Development. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of the Philippines (1968). He is currently completing his doctoral studies in development studies at the De La Salle University.
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MR. FRANCIS XAVIER MANGLAPUS
Francis Xavier Manglapus is the Philippine representative of EleksDış Tic. A.Ş., one of the Elginkan Group’s companies, since May 2014. He has been chairman of the board of Camiling Land, Inc. for three years. He was a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch from Jan. 1984 to March 1987 and materials manager of Hotel Intercontinental New York from Jan. 1979 to Jan. 1981. He holds a BS degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration, from Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York.
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MR. RAMON CASIPLE
Mr. Casiple is the Founder and Executive Director of Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER) in Manila, Philippines. IPER acts as a pioneering organization for the genuine emocratization of governance and the empowerment of the citizenry through parliamentary and electoral struggles.
He is also the chairperson of Consortium on Electoral Reforms. CER is a national coalition comprised of 47 organizations seeking electoral reform.He is also a consultant to the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates. PAHRA is an alliance of individuals, institutions and organizations committed to the promotion, protection and realization of human rights in the Philippines.
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ATTY. RUFUS B. RODRIGUEZ
Atty. Rodriguez is the former House Representative of the Second District of Cagayan de Oro City. He is also currently elected as the National President of the Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines: Ang Partido ng Tunay na Demokrasya. He was also a chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee of the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
During his High School graduation, he was the recipient of the Insular Life Excellence Award. He went on to take AB-Economics at De La Salle University, Manila where he graduated. He entered the College of Law at the University of the Philippines at Diliman, Quezon City. As a sophomore law student, he was elected the first and Filipino President of the World Association of Law Students based in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
He was a student at the U.P. College of Law, a member of the Order of the Purple Feather Honor Society from 1st to 4th year. He graduated in the 1981 Bar Examinations with grades of 90% in three bar subjects namely: Commercial Law, Criminal Law and Labor Law. Atty. Rodriguez graduated as Summa Cum Laude with the degree in Economics at the De La Salle University, and ranked as number 7 in the 1981 Bar Exams. He finished his Master of Laws and graduated as Magna Cum Laude in Columbia Law School in New York. Rodriguez was appointed as the head of the Bureau of Immigration by President Joseph Estrada in 1998, and served in that capacity until 2001.
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ATTY. LINDA JIMENO
Atty. Jimeno specializes in family law. She is a Professorial Lecturer in the Philippine Judicial Academy. She is a mediator to Court of Appeals & the Regional Trial Courts (accredited by the Supreme Court & Philippine Judicial Academy, respectively). Atty. Jimeno is also a Legal Counsel to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
From March 2003 to 2007, Atty. Jimeno became the first Filipino director of the Executive Council of the International Criminal Bar representing Asia. She is a columnist in the Manila Standard and her column, Out of the Box is published every Monday. Atty. Jimeno is also a member of Technical Panel for Legal Education of the Commission on Higher Education and the Supreme Court's Sub-Committee on Rule Revisions. She has been the director of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association from 2006 to 2012 and the president of Philippine Bar Association of the Philippines from 2004 to 2005.
