Around 50 other officials of the government including four main members of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo’s transition team were sworn in by President Rodrigo Duterte this afternoon, August 14, 2016 in Malacanang.

The four are Mae Fe Ancheta-Templa (Undersecretary for Institutional Development); Aleli B. Bawagan (Assistant Secretary for OSec Group); Ma. Lourdes Turalde-Jarabe (Assistant Sec. for Promotive Programs); and Hope V. Hervilla (Assistant Sec. for Protective Programs).

“We thank Pres. Duterte for immediately acting on our appointments, and we make the promise to fully serve the Filipino people with both efficiency and compassion and always shunning corruption.  Templa, Turalde-Jarabe, Bawagan, and Hervilla each have made significant contributions in the practice of social work in the Philippines by being activist educators, writers, public speakers, and leaders of grassroots people’s organizations,” said DSWD Sec. Judy Taguiwalo.

Sec. Taguiwalo said that the four new officials represent the major islands of the country – Templa is from Mindanao; Turalde-Jarabe is from Bicol; Bawagan is  from Luzon; and Hervilla is from the Visayas.

“With the support of the other officials of the DSWD and all our hard-working social workers all over the country, we hope to make the DSWD and its programs more responsive to the needs of the Filipino people, particularly the poor. We aim to help Filipinos gain greater and easier access to all the services the department has to offer, and to make sure that the funds entrusted to the department by the national government and the Filipino people are never wasted.”

Mae Fe Ancheta-Templa

She received her social work license in 1981 after graduating in 1980 from the University of Mindanao. She has a 2007 Master’s Degree on Social Work from the UP Open University, and a Candidate Ph.D. in Social Work University of Capetown, SA. She has been a consultant in efforts to draft codes for children and women of Davao City; a Gabriela Mindanao founding convener and officer. She has been a social work educator since 198; and developed Moro-lumad inspired social work curriculum for the BS SW program of Assumption College of Davao. She is also a lecturer for graduate school students of social work in Ateneo de Davao.

Founding Convenor – Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (Inpeace), Educators ‘ Forum for Development in Mindanao, Balsa MINDANAO, Save Our Schools-Mindanao.

Ma. Lourdes Turalde-Jarabe

She is a candidate for a Ph.D. in Family Studies in Miriam College, and has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the UP College of Social Work & Community Development. She graduated Cum Laude and Class Salutatorian from Miriam College Loyola Heights. Q.C.; and she placed No. 1 in the 1997 Social Worker Licensure Examination.

Aleli Bawagan

Bawagan has a Ph.D. in Education, and a Major in Anthropology/Sociology of Education from the College of Education in the University of the Philippines in Diliman.  She has a Masters in Community Development from the College of Social Work and Community Development also in UP; and a Diploma in Community Organizing from the same. She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, also from UP.  Bawagan is not a social worker.

Hope V. Hervilla

Hervilla was the 3rd nominee of Bayan Muna in the May 2016 elections, and is the founder of Voices of Hope, a collective of citizen journalists writing about the aftermath and the recovery in areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. She took but was unable to finish her MA in Public Management, Open University, University of the Philippines (Course Units only), but  Bachelor of Science in Social Work, Central Philippine University. She placed No. 2 in the 1987 Social Worker Licensure Examination.  Among the honors she has received are the Most Outstanding Alumna, Central Philippine University, 2015, and Most Outstanding Social Work Graduate, Department of Social Work, Central Philippine University, 2001.