National Food Authority (NFA)

The personal computer (PC), born in the 80's, drastically revised the way we design, develop and implement computer-based systems. Then came local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and the amazing Internet. Cellular phones, fax and e-mail, how can we ever imagine life without them now? I pay my bills via phone banking, 24 x 7!

The technology advancement now allows government agency systems to interface. NFA sends information to PNB, GSIS and BIR in computer files and media, of course accompanied by hard copies.

I am currently the Division Chief of Computer Services. I lead a brilliant and motivated group of computer-based applications developers and implementors who support the NFA in its executive, financial, administration, marketing and distribution operations and grains industry stabilization functions.

We develop and update the NFA web site, our window to the world. It features a text-NFA interface where the public may bring any concern it has about NFA services to the immediate attention of our administrator and other officials. It has an E-trading facility where buyers and sellers of corn may register and be directly market-matched. This reduces the time and price of transaction consummation. Bid notices are also posted in our web site. In addition, databases of our facilities all over the country are viewable there, too. We are in coordination with the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics in the conduct of a joint survey of cereal prices with results viewable in our web site come April.

We support the NFA finance function through the cash monitoring system. Procurement funds sent to our field offices are monitored on a daily basis via our network. This effectively checks the float of our funds and minimizes our interest payments.

We support the NFA marketing and distribution operations through our grains situationer system which monitors our provincial and regional supply situation. We have a database for vessels that unload rice shipments as well as a laytime database that computes demurrhage/despatch on a daily basis while ships unload.

We support the NFA industry regulation function through the Registration and Licensing System. Databases of grains businessmen are current in the field offices, with replicates at the Central Office, for official query when needed in cases of smuggling.

We assist the NFA administration function through the monitoring of human, material and money resources. We have a Human Resource Information System that is interfaced with the Payroll System that is also interfaced with the Accounting System. A property Information System is in place, too.

Right now, we are evaluating a proposed system that will utilize laser card technology which will interface with our platform and truck scales to capture exact weights of grains receipts and issues.

We are also awaiting the New Government Accounting System for the GOCC's from the Commission on Audit.

The challenge and excitement of new technology will never end.

I admit to one frustration. I have tried and I am still trying to shift the language of office communication to Wikang Filipino. For one, I answer the phone with a Magandang Umaga Po! Or Magandang Hapon Po! greeting. Leadership by example does not apply in this area, it seems.

Special Assignments in NFA:

Last summer of 2003, right after the SARS scare, I represented the Philippines in the 5th Global Child Nutrition Forum held in Reno, Nevada, USA and participated in by 21 delegates from 14 countries in 5 continents. It was a roundtable discussion about school feeding around the world sponsored by the Child Nutrition Foundation, sister organization of the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA).

After the forum, I was selected to present a paper about nutrition in the Philippines during the Annual National Conference of the American School Food Service Association. I was glad to inform the body about the iron fortified rice of NFA, as well as the Vitamin A fortified sugar, cooking oil and wheat flour that are legislated for implementation this year in the Philippines. They cannot imagine that we eat rice three times a day!

In 1998, I represented the National Food Authority as a load port representative in the People's Republic of China. We inspected the impeccable Port of Shanghai and observed the loading of imported rice from the port warehouses to the ship's hatches. We saw to it that the quality of rice shipped as well as the container sacks followed the government to government importation specifications. That particular importation was between Vietnam and the Philippines, but Vietnam sourced the rice from China.

In 1989, during the coup and while our airport was closed, I was caught in Singapore during the last day of training on the Computer-based Rice Stockpile System of Singapore sponsored by the ASEAN Food Handling Bureau. I proceeded to Jakarta, Indonesia to observe the systems in Badan Urusan Logistik (BULOG), the counterpart rice agency of NFA in Indonesia.

I have continuously represented the NFA and government in the Information Technology community. I have served as Internet committee chairperson and later as director of the Philippine Computer Society (PCS) . I have also served as treasurer of the Government Organization for Information Technology (GO-IT). I have also been secretary and auditor of the Unix Users Club of the Philippines (UUCP). I actively participated in the Y2K committee if the Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS). These involvements have trained me in events management of conventions and have brought me to participate in 3 international computer conventions in the USA, too.

National Census and Statistics Office

I was employed at the National Census and Statistics Office, now the National Statistics Office, prior to my present employment at the National Food Authority. Fresh from graduation at the 1st UP-NCSO-NMYC Statistical Manpower Training Program, I supervised the 1975 population census taking in one district of Manila. Census enumerators then were not the public school teachers. Each barangay captain recommended a college graduate from among the residents of his barangay. Enumeration was very efficient! The most motivated among these young and idealistic crop of enumerators were absorbed by the NCSO in the course of processing and producing the census results.

As a census statistician, I did labor force statistics systems at the Households Survey Division and population projection systems at the Population Studies Division of the NCSO.

After a competitive exam and training in EDP Systems Analysis and Design at the National Computer Institute, I was transferred to the EDP Department where I led teams that developed and implemented the different computer-based systems for the various censuses and surveys conducted by NCSO. These were the censuses of population and agriculture, the surveys of establishments, family income and expenditures, construction projects of local governments, and more. At that time, the civil registry documents were not yet computerized and cross-referenced like they are now.

I was a seasoned Senior Census EDP Systems Analyst, disappointed at not being considered for transfer to NEDA from NCSO, when I applied for transfer to the National Grains Authority. I was taken in because it was in the process of expansion to become the National Food Authority and it was upgrading its computer systems.

Centro Escolar University

I was a faculty member of the Centro Escolar University teaching high school mathematics during the turbulent Dekada 70. Our school was located along Mendiola St.

Teaching was a natural leadership role. There was mentoring in the subject matter of mathematics, motivating an advisory class to be cohesive and competitive at work and at play. There was Senior Girl Scout leadership at eh Manila Girl Scout Council, where I had fruitful interactions with leaders, teachers and students from other schools in the challenging activities like campings at Mt. Makiling and at the PMA. In Camp Gonzales in Novaliches one stormy camping night, lightning hit one of the cottages occupied by the troops.