The Philippines Human Capital Review: Investing in the Early Years to Boost Human Potential

Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan has been a member of the Philippine President’s Cabinet since 2022, serving as secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority, a post he had previously held from 2012 to 2016. He served as the inaugural chairperson and chief executive of the Philippine Competition Commission from 2016 to 2022. Before his initial Cabinet appointment in 2012, he was professor and dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics, director-chief executive of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture.

Before joining the University of the Philippines faculty in 1987, he was a research fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and an economist at the World Bank in Washington, DC.

In his current role as NEDA Secretary, he concurrently chairs the governing boards of various state agencies, including the Philippine Statistics Authority, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Public-Private Partnership Center, Development Academy of the Philippines, Commission on Population and Development, and Philippine Center for Economic Development.

He has served in various capacities in many academic and professional organizations, including President of the Philippine Economic Society, President of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economists, Secretary-General of the Asia Pacific Agricultural Policy Forum, and Advisory Council member of the American Committee on Asian Economic Studies. 

He has advised and consulted with numerous development agencies and multilateral institutions, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, OECD, ASEAN, and various United Nations agencies.

As an academic, he has specialized in development economics, agricultural economics, resource and environmental economics, and applied welfare economics.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Hawaii, an MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and a BS in Agriculture (magna cum laude) from the Mariano Marcos State University.

An avid runner, he has completed some of the world’s marathon events, including the Vancouver Marathon, New York Marathon, Paris Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and Honolulu Marathon. 

Ndiamé Diop oversees the World Bank program in Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. He leads the policy dialogue with government counterparts, civil society, academia and other partners.

The Bank program in Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand is a mixture of cutting-edge analytics and advisory services and lending operations focused on financially and technically supporting the countries’ development agenda. The World Bank team produces both inbound knowledge to support the four countries’ key reforms and outbound knowledge to share these countries’ innovative development achievements with other developing countries.  

Dr. Diop brings to this position 20 years of World Bank experience, working across East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to his current role, he was Practice Manager for Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment for East Asia for four years, providing technical and strategic guidance to the economic team working in South East Asia and the Pacific Region. Preceding that, Mr. Diop was Lead Economist for Indonesia, leading the economic policy dialogue and the Bank’s advisory and development policy lending support to Indonesia. Earlier in his career, he worked as Lead Economist for Jordan and Lebanon and World Bank Resident Representative for Tunisia.

A Senegalese national, Dr. Diop joined the World Bank in 2000 as a Young Professional following the completion of his PhD in Economics the same year.

Toni Joe Lebbos (he/him) is an economist whose work and research focus on the intersection of health, human development, fragility, climate, and social inclusion.

Toni Joe joined the World Bank as a Young Professional, bringing operational and analytical experience from over twenty countries across East Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. His contributions include key publications such as Public Expenditure Reviews, Health Financing Assessments, and Damage and Needs Assessments. Before joining the World Bank, Toni Joe served as a Policy Advisor for the Government of Canada, where he provided strategic advice and technical assistance to federal departments, driving policy discussions and ensuring the inclusion of vulnerable populations in government programs.

Toni Joe is fluent in English, French, and Arabic. He is completing his PhD in Public Policy at Carleton University and holds a Master’s in Development Economics from Yale University, a Master’s in Finance from the University of Porto, and a Bachelor’s in Finance from the Lebanese American University.

Laarni Revilla is an economist (extended-term consultant) at the World Bank Office Manila. She supports the Bank’s operational and analytical work on social protection and labor in the Philippines. Prior to joining the Bank, she worked as a researcher at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Asian Development Bank (ADB) Headquarters, and Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). 

Her research focuses on issues in development economics, including education, labor, social protection, and gender. Her works have been published in peer-reviewed journals and as knowledge products – books, policy notes, and working papers – of the World Bank, ADBI, ADB, and PIDS. 

Laarni completed her PhD in Development Economics and Master’s in Public Policy from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

Undersecretary Edillon holds a PhD in Economics from La Trobe University in Australia, MA degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics and an MS degree in Statistics from the UP School of Statistics. She is also a 2019 Presidential Gawad CES Awardee.

Among her major responsibilities is shepherding the formulation of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP). The PDP is an elaboration of the country’s priorities over the medium-term and is the blueprint of government policies, programs and projects. She also oversees the monitoring of the PDP implementation. 

In addition, she is in charge of providing technical advice on policy issues to both the legislative and executive branches of government, especially the committees of the NEDA Board. Ms. Edillon chairs the Social Development Committee-Technical Board and the Technical Committee on Tariff Related Matters and is a member of the Development Budget Corrdination Committee of the NEDA Board.

She also chairs the National Innovation Council – Executive Technical Board. Undersecretary Edillon is currently a member of the Philippine Economic Society, where she used to be President. She is also a member of the Philippine Commission of the UNESCO. 

Dr. Aniceto C. Orbeta Jr. is the current president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). Before this appointment, he was a senior research fellow at PIDS for 29 years, wherein he led the education and labor policy research team that studied key policy recommendations and reforms, including the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Sustainable Livelihood Program, and Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act or Free Tuition Law, among others.

He also served as Officer-in-Charge and Deputy Executive Director for Policy Development and Planning of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council and Deputy Executive Director of the Policy Development Foundation, Inc. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics and did postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. 

He is considered one of the country’s pioneers in impact evaluation research. He has extensive experience designing, conducting, and teaching impact evaluation of programs and policies in education, social protection, judicial reforms, community-driven development, water services, agriculture, and agricultural finance.

He has designed rigorous impact evaluations for PIDS. His expertise in impact evaluation has been widely sought by various international organizations, including the Asian Development Bank, Australian Agency for International Development, Innovations for Poverty Action, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, Millennium Challenge Corporation, United States Agency for International Development, and World Bank. 

Dr. Orbeta specializes in applied economic modeling, impact evaluation, social sector issues, demographic economics, and information technologies. He has published numerous papers on these areas.

Dr. Anthony Faraon is Deputy Executive Director of Zuellig Family Foundation, a foundation focused on improving health conditions in rural communities by providing training programs for local government health leaders, including local chief executives and health officers, to strengthen health leadership and improve governance. 

Dr. Faraon was formerly Project Lead of Tulay Sa Kalusugan:  Palawan Access to Medicines Project, a collaborative work between the Department of Health (DOH), local government units in Palawan, multinational pharmaceutical companies, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He served as short-term consultant of the Ateneo School of Government for two projects with the DOH on the Development of the National Objectives of Health and write-up of Health Policy Notes.  He was also a part-time assistant professor at the New Era University College of Medicine handling Community Health and Family Medicine.

Dr. Faraon earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, and his Master of Public Health from the Institute of Community and Family Health of the Dr. Fe del Mundo Medical Center.  He finished the Management Development Program of the Asian Institute of Management.  He then earned his Master's in Public Management from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government. 

Aki Fushimi joined UNICEF Philippines Country Office in February 2024 as Chief of Education.  He has over 25 years of experience in education and international development, including 20 years with UNICEF.  Since 2004, Aki served as Education Specialist in UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office in Thailand, Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office in Kenya, and in Ghana Country Office, providing technical assistance and capacity development support in the following areas: equity-focused education sector analysis and planning; data and education management information systems; educational decentralization and school-based management; education for children from minority ethnic communities etc. Between 2022 and 2024, Aki served as Chief of Education and Early Childhood Development at Ukrainian Refugee Response Office in the Czech Republic.  

Beyond education sector, Aki also served as Partnership Manager in UNICEF Global Private Fundraising and Partnerships Division in Geneva, Switzerland, thereby working with a wide range of private foundations, corporates and individuals worldwide to collaborate with UNICEF programmes both financially and technically.  

Before joining UNICEF, he was a Japanese language teacher in Japan and Hungary, while also worked on several ODA projects in Asia and Africa as development consultant. Aki is a national of Japan and holds a Doctorate in Education (EdD) from University of Sussex and a Master of Arts (MA) in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education, University College London in the UK.

As Senior Country Officer, Clarissa David provides strategic advice on country engagement and supports the country teams on the knowledge agenda and external partnerships. She joined the Bank in 2019 as Senior External Affairs Officer, functioning as Communications Lead for the External and Corporate Relations team covering Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.  

Cristian Aedo is Practice Manager for the East Asia and Pacific Region of the Education Global Practice. He has led investment loans and development policy lending for strengthening human development outcomes through better accountability and relevant skills. He has managed education projects, programs and studies in the Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and Central Asia Regions. Cristian has also authored studies on Skills and Country Skills Patterns.

Lois Calderon is a veteran journalist, telling stories about the Philippines, Asia and the world for over 20 years across TV networks Channel News Asia, Bloomberg TV Philippines, ANC, and CNN Philippines.

In 2018, she joined the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as a Director. As a public servant, Lois led efforts in crafting NEDA’s advocacy programs – the UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustaining the Ambisyon Natin 2040 campaign.

In 2020, Lois returned to television as Senior Correspondent and later as News Anchor for CNN Philippines, covering business, the stock market, and the political economy. Helped by her science background (a UP engineering undergraduate), she also reported about natural disasters and produced TV documentaries about endangered species. Throughout her career, Lois won both local awards and global fellowship grants in the UK and Germany. She currently anchors a newscast and a business features program for NewsWatch Plus, a new streaming channel with simulcast on two local TV networks.