Members of the Steering Committee

The members of the PHISO Steering Committee will assist the Board of Trustees in managing the affairs of the organization.

1. Naidyl Isis Bautista is Assistant Professor of Italian at the Department of European Languages and is an affiliate faculty at the Center of International Studies, both at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. In 2016, she obtained a Master in Teaching Italian to Foreigners (Didattica dell’italiano a stranieri) from the Università per Stranieri di Siena. Her research interests include materials development, language didactics, linguistics, cultural studies, and decolonial studies.

2. Kebart P. Licayan earned his Master’s degree in International Relations at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. At the same time, he took a certification in Terrorism Studies and worked as a student research assistant at NTU. Mr. Licayan’s research interests include International Relations, security studies, Southeast Asian studies and terrorism studies. His previous program was in Political Science obtained from the Rizal Technological University, Philippines.

3. Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach is an Assistant Professor of Philippine Studies at the Filipino Department of De La Salle University–Manila, where he also finished his MA in Philippine Studies. Concurrently, Jecon is a PhD student in critical sociolinguistics and doctoral research for the “Language, Culture, and Identity in the Global Age” (IdentiCat) research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. He also serves as a managing editor for Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (LSE and Wiley-Blackwell) and associate editor for Southeast Asian Media Studies. Moreover, Jecon is an elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. His published works revolve around the politics of Philippine languages, culture, and mass media. Jecon is also interested in Filipino philosophy and the Filipinization of the social sciences.

4. Kobe Bryan L. Loterinia is BA candidate in Political Science with major in International Relations at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila. He is the founding chairman of Ang PuliNaw: Pulitikang Pananaw, a newly established student academic organization that focused on indigenization of Political Science. Recently had two papers accepted and presented in both international conferences. One in “The Remains of a Dictatorship: An International Conference on the Philippines under Marcos” organized by Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints of Ateneo de Manila University and the other one is on the “2nd PHISO International Conference” organized by Philippine International Studies Organization. His research interests include Marcos Foreign Policy, Democratization, State-building, and Environmental Politics.

5. Melanie Reyes is the Chair of the International Studies Department at Miriam College. She obtained her AB International Studies from Miriam College, her MA in Public Administration, Major in Public Policy from UP Diliman where she is currently finishing her dissertation for doctoral program on Social Development. She is also a Senior Lecturer at the UP Open University teaching Women and Development Research. Her research interests include migration studies, gender and development, public policy and advocacy, and governance studies. She is a member of the National Gender Resource Pool of the Philippine Commission on Women and the Asian Association of Women’s Studies (AAWS). She was a delegate to the 2018 International Visitors’ Leadership Program of the US Department of States, where she engaged with various government offices and organizations in Washington DC and three different states in the US (Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Utah).

6. Anna Marie Sibayan-Sarmiento is an associate professor of Spanish at the Department of European Languages, College of Arts and Letters and an affiliate faculty of the Center for International Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She obtained her PhD in Didactics of Language and Literature and her MA in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language from the University of Barcelona. She has mainly published on adult foreign language acquisition; her current interests include the place of Spanish in International Studies, specifically how it is taught and learned in a postcolonial context.

7. Patrick Dave Q. Bugarin is a PhD candidate at the National Chengchi University. His research interests include securitization theory, transnational organized crime, and law enforcement cooperation. He obtained his master’s degree in international affairs from Ming Chuan University under the Taiwan Scholarship Program and his bachelor’s degree in political science from the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas. Patrick is also a professed lay member of the Order of Preachers.

8. Hadje Cresencio Sadje is associate member of the SOAS Center for Palestine Studies, University of London, UK. Mr. Sadje obtained an MA in Crosscultural Theology degree from Protestant Theological University, The Netherlands, in 2016. He is currently an MA student (specializing on Sociology of Religion) at the University of Bonn, Germany, and at the same time, an MA student in Theology and Religious Studies at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Leuven, Belgium. In the world of practice, his notable works are in association with the Christian Peacemaker Team Greece, Caritas Brussels, World Student Christian Movement-Europe (WSCM-Europe), EAPPI-World Council of Churches (WCC), Peace Builders Community Philippines, and Pananaw Pinoy. While in academe, he researches and teaches at the Barcelona Applied Social Sciences Spain and the Foundation Academy in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Mr. Sadje’s research interests include global politics and world religions, sociology of religion, philosophical theologies, postcolonial theologies, and political/public theologies.

9. Denson Acomular teaches at the Social Sciences department of the National University, Philippines. He researches on the ontological security within the theoretical and methodological bounds of political sociology, and for which he critically explores the security(ness) while completing his MA program in International Relations at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Mr. Acomular graduated with MA (with merits) under a full bursary assistance from CEU on June 2018 and completed his BA International Studies (with distinction) at the Far Eastern University, Manila.

10. Francis M. Esteban is a full-time lecturer and currently the Program Head of the Department of International Studies at the Far Eastern University. He finished his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of Santo Tomas, and took his Masters of Law in International Relations degree at Jilin University, Changchun, P.R. China. His research interests include Philppine foreign policy, US-Philippine relations, and Northeast Asia relations.

11. Nathan Daniel Sison is lecturer in International Studies at Far Eastern University (FEU), Manila. He teaches Introduction to International Studies, Comparative Politics and Government of Southeast Asia, Philippine history, World Civilization, and Effective Speech Communication. He obtained his BA in Mass Communication (with distinction) and was also awarded as one of the university’s Top Ten Outstanding Students of 2015 in FEU. In 2016, he received a full scholarship grant from Thammasat University, Thailand wherein he obtained his MA in Asia-Pacific Studies with special focus on International Relations. His research interests are in the area of international studies focusing on Philippine foreign relations with the Asia-Pacific region in terms of both the state and people, foreign policy analysis and the inquiry of power in IR.

12. Marvin Renelle C. Rollo is MA student (Asia Pacific Studies) at the Thammasat University, Thailand, and BA holder (Political Science) from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. His regional interest, broadly the Asia Pacific, focuses on contemporary developments of transnational collaborative efforts in addressing issues about sustainable development. With his youth leadership advocacy, he founded the “Youth To Be” Philippine summit, selected as SEA Youth Sustainable Impact leader, became a member of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative and of the 2030 Youth Force in the Philippines Inc., and participated in both international and domestic youth leadership conferences.

13. Domar C. Alviar is Lecturer at the National University, Philippines. Serving various posts from university publications editorship in the Philippines in 2001-2007 to the Middle East and North Africa customs relations as well as international supply management for eight years before returning to the country, this economist by training decided to pursue his development advocacy and earned an MA in development communication. He managed his time abroad with a liberal concentration on an overseas Filipino workers empowerment tool and authored a related paper considered exemplar of good student work, the abstract of which was published online by the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, UP Open University. He edits development reports and publishes them in Mega Scene (ISSN: 2508-0458). An international journal will soon run his probe of a localized political economy under the auspices of the Research and Innovation Office of NU Manila. The prevailing international economic regime and the Philippines’ greater openness that goes with it have prompted him to attune his social sciences and communication endeavors to something more deeply international even as he is pursuing a doctorate degree in communication at UPOU.

14. Mar Louie Vincent C. Reyes is an MA student in Political Science at the University of San Carlos, where he also earned his BA Political Science major in International Relations and Foreign Service while serving as councilor for the Carolinian Political Science Society. His primary research interests are focused on the intersection between religion and politics, specifically in the politics of the Roman Catholic Church, the role of religious freedom in developing holistic societies, and the relevance of religion in international relations. He is also interested in studying political philosophy and ethics, particularly existentialism and Christian philosophy. He participated at the 2018 PHISO Conference and at the first National Christian Philosophy Conference. His papers were “ASEAN Religious Identity: How Religious Freedom Builds Bridges” and “Hope within the Vacuum: The Christian Response to Modern Existential Crises.”

We are thankful to the voluntary service of the following former members of the Steering Committee:

• Filbert Anthony B. Mejorada
• Daniel Orin Levi T. Alatraca
• Christian Derek S. Guerra
• Maria Francesca C. Mangahas
• Maria Lorraine G. Sajorda
• Ryan Dave A. Rayla
• Lyon Suelo