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Manuel E. Valdehuesa, Jr., is a native of Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao. He was deputy presidential adviser (undersecretary) for constitutional reform in 2004, vice chairman of the Local Government Academy (2002-2004), director at the Development Academy of the Philippines (1975-1987), and Administrator of the 1971 Constitutional Convention (February-July 1971).
He has served as UNESCO director for Asia and the Pacific, concurrently sub-regional communication adviser for Central and West Asia (1983-1985); member of the Philippine Mission to the U.N. (1987-1992); manager of the Philippine Center-New York (1989-1998); secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Publishers (1980-1983); and secretary-general of the Aquino Administration’s peace negotiating panel for Mindanao and the Cordilleras (February-September 1987).
He spent his undergraduate years at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (A.B. sociology and English), went on a development planning and leadership fellowship in Israel, read political science and the MBA at Ateneo de Manila University, did a year as professional scholar at Columbia University School of International Affairs in New York City, and earned graduate certificates in economics at the Henry George School of Social Science, an affiliate of the State University of New York.
Active in the reform movement since the 1960s, he was secretary-general of the Christian Social Movement until Martial Law dispersed it, but resurfaced after EDSA I to accredit it as the National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD) -- the party which merged with the Lakas Tao Party to enable Fidel V. Ramos to run for the presidency.
He made his mark as a political organizer and campaign operative during the heydays of the late Vice President Emannuel N. Pelaez and Senators Raul Manglapus and Manuel Manahan, among others. Through it all, he was also a book publisher and taught social science and history at the Ateneo.
(With former Vice President "Maning" Pelaez)
While traveling widely as part of his work as a UNESCO/United Nations director, his interest in politics led him to observe at close range the American presidential system as well as the European parliamentary models, including Israel’s, and traveled widely in the course of work in Unesco and the United Nations. He returned in 1998 to revive his childhood interest in ranching (in his farm in Bukidnon) while writing for newspapers.
In 2004 he received the UNICEF-PPI Award for Most Outstanding Column on Children (community category) and went on to write a book on the critical factors that shape our politics entitled, Trapo Governance and the Cha Cha Conspiracy: More Power to Those in Power, None for the People, published by Cacho Publishing House (National Book Store) in 2005.
Today, Manny is president and national convenor of Gising Barangay Movement, Inc. (formerly Task Force Good Governance), an advocacy for empowering the grassroots. His newest book, “A Nation of Zombies: Powerless Grassroots, Clueless Elites and the Cycle of Corruption in the Philippines,” was recently launched by the Capitol University Press. Email: valdeman_esq[at]yahoo.com.
(Speaking in Pakistan as UNESCO Director for Asia and the Pacific)
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