After graduating from a degree in Psychology, I took a teaching job in a pre-school in Baguio City. With a greater ambition and the desire to practice my profession, I became a Guidance Counselor for several months. The July 16 earthquake in 1990 opened a new door for me to engage in development work, particularly on enterprise development and helping the local small entrepreneurs of Baguio and Benguet rise from the rubbles of the earthquake.

Being committed with development work in a university-based foundation in Baguio City, I felt the need to be more and give more. So I signed up with the country’s premier business NGO to undergo a one-year intensive training on development management focusing on strategic management, project development and management, community organizing, and financial management. From then on, I was engaged in various development initiatives of corporate foundations, government, and the civil society.

In the late 1990s, I was part of the pioneering team that established the country’s anti-poverty super-body, which, incidentally, is the first in the world. However, some internal politicking ended my career in the government. It was also a welcome change, after all. Not long after we were ejected from our posts, we joined the ranks of the working class, which toppled down the corrupt administration.

For six years, I was involved with a funding mechanism of the Governments of Canada and the Philippines, which focused on poverty alleviation and governance. I handled projects on cooperative development, ecosystems (upland, lowland, and coastal) development, enterprise development, agriculture, and governance that are located in the Visayas and Mindanao. After which, I handled a Congressional Fellowship program that shapes the mind and heart of young Muslim leaders to share the the quest for peace and development in Mindanao through a specialized training on public policy and legislation.

I am also a freelance social development consultant, working with different institutions on program development and management, program evaluation, training, research and documentation, and institutional/organizational development efforts.