Our Team

Bruce N. Ragas is the Regional Director of the Commission on Population and Development Region VII. He is a lawyer by profession and prior to his government service, he has been into private practice of law and was engaged with various non-government organizations that worked on the development issues such as human rights, environment, gender and development, reproductive health and sexual rights. Such involvement has exposed him to the intricate works of advocacy, networking and research. Aside from earning his degrees of Bachelor of Arts Major in Anthropology from the University of San Carlos and Bachelor of Laws from the University of San Jose Recoletos, Cebu City, he had been a recipient also of a Ford Foundation scholarship on the Program for Development Managers at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati City, Philippines, and Hewlett Packard Foundation scholarship on the fellowship course on International Family Planning Leadership Program at the Public Health Institute through the International Health Program, Sta. Cruz, California, in collaboration with School of Public Health, Berkeley, California and Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.

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Patrick John Y. Lim, Ph.D. is a Professor of Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of San Carlos (USC), Cebu City. He completed his bachelor’s degree at USC and earned his doctorate on synthetic inorganic and organometallics chemistry at the University of Melbourne, Australia in 2000. After returning to the Philippines, he has served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at USC from 2004 to 2011 and as a member of the Commission on Higher Education Technical Committee for Chemistry from 2007 to 2009.

He became involved in chemical safety and security through collaborations with experts from Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, culminating with his appointment to a U.S. National Academies Committee on Promoting Safe and Secure Chemical Management in Developing Countries from 2009 to 2010. His engagement in chemical safety and security included travels to Pakistan, Yemen, Thailand, and Switzerland, the last one for the IUPAC Workshop 2012 on Impacts of Scientific Development on the Chemical Weapons Convention. Currently, he serves as Editor of The Philippine Scientist, a journal published by USC Press and listed in the Zoological Record and BIOSIS Previews.

Alfredo A. Arquillano, Jr. served as Municipal Mayor of San Francisco, Cebu province, the Philippines for three terms. Under his leadership, a “Purok” community empowerment program was developed to boost the resilience of families living below the poverty line. In the Purok “Capital Build Up” program, communities actively participate in developing local solutions for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The system has won the municipal government several national and local awards, including the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2011.

Maria Cecilia C. Gastardo-Conaco is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of the Philippines Department of Psychology in Diliman, Quezon City. She obtained her Ph.D. in (social) Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara under a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship. A Rockefeller grant supported her additional training for the certificate in political psychology from the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. In 1991, she was awarded as one of the nation’s Outstanding Young Scientists by the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines.

Her research experience is broad and she has published on a variety of topics, including women’s health and sexuality, adolescent reproductive health, social identity and participation in social movements, cognitions of human rights, the psychology of poverty, cross-cultural relations, and indigenous psychology. She has done consultancy work for government and various non-governmental organizations, doing evaluation research and social impact assessments. She is also frequently invited as a resource person for research training workshops.

She currently holds the University of the Philippines Centennial Professorial Chair in Psychology for work on social psychological concepts in Filipino indigenous psychology.

Mr. Aloysius Ma. L. Cañete holds a Masters degree in Health Social Science from De La Salle University under the Ford Foundation scholarship and BA and MA degrees in Anthropology at the University of San Carlos. In 2003, he received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue doctoral studies in Social Anthropology at Arizona State University (ASU) in the United States. In the U.S., Mr. Cañete was an adjunct lecturer in the Program for Southeast Asian Studies at ASU. Before working at A2D Project, he was associate professor of Anthropology at the University of San Carlos for more than 10 years and was hired by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. as consultant and senior program officer for research and knowledge management in the Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center in Cebu City.

Dr. Leodinito Y. Cañete is the Secretary of the Board of Regents of Cebu Normal University. He is also its chief planning officer. At CNU, he handles graduate courses in theory development, research process, and current pedagogical issues. Dr. Cañete has published research projects in demographics in basic education development, gender-responsive community development and children’s rights and education. He completed his Doctor of Pedagogy with Highest Honors at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He also had a career at the National Economic and Development Authority starting as an economic development specialist and culminating as the Chief of the Operations Division of its Regional Office in Central Visayas.

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Ms. Rhodora Felizarta joined A2D Project in 2015 with more than 20 years of financial and accounting management experience in both corporate and non-government organizations. As Finance Officer, she is responsible for the overall financial management of the organization. Moreover, she is responsible for ensuring financial monitoring and the strict implementation of the organization’s finance and accounting policies.

Before joining A2D Project, Ms. Felizarta was the Finance Officer of Cebu Satellite Office of Helpage International/ Coalition of Services of the Elderly, Apostleship of the Sea – Cebu and Cebu Court Appointed Special Advocate/ Guardian Ad Litem Volunteer’s Association. She also worked as Finance Assistant and Events Organizer of the United States Agency for International Development-funded project Management Sciences for Health-LEAD for Health, and Bookkeeper and Accountant of Cebu Newspaper Workers Foundation and Cebu Newspaper Workers Multi-Purpose Cooerpative.

Ms. Felizarta holds a degree on Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from St. Theresa’s College.

Ms. Djanil B. Barrera holds a degree on Bachelor of Science and Commerce major in Business Administration from University of San Jose-Recoletos.

Ms. Barrera joined A2D Project in 2014 as Office Assistant. Currently as Administrative Officer, she provides support to the OIC-Executive Director and Finance Officer in carrying out administrative and financial management activities.

Mr. Jon Oliver R. Balili currently serves part-time as Website Manager. Formerly a full-time Research Assistant for A2D Project, he contributed greatly to a number of research initiatives and programs. He now works full-time in the public sector particularly in the field of youth development.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics minor in Law and Politics from the University of San Carlos and is currently pursuing his Master of Public Management major in Voluntary Sector Management at the University of the Philippines Open University.