PGMA in Koronadal/Ledie Carino, 67

My family watched the 111th Independence Day celebration held in Koronadal City in Cotabato City on television. Being a Mindanaoan, I felt elated that President Arroyo chose to hold the rites there, which bore the theme “Kagitingan, Kagalingan, Kasipagan Tungo sa Tunay na Kalayaan.”

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, chair of the June 12 national organizing committee, had announced that the President wanted to fulfill her wish to be with the Mindanaoans to show her resolve for the country’s peace and development in Mindanao being the first basket of the country. He added that the government’s peace efforts can fast track the economic growth of Mindanao.

Koronadal is a fast-developing growth center made up of 27 barangays, including the four zones in the poblacion. Being the capital town of South Cotabato, as well as the administrative center of Region XII, it is the center of the province in terms of political, cultural and socio-economic activities. Business firms and other establishments have sprouted in the city. Considered the provincial agri-industrial center of South Cotabato, it attracts local and foreign investors because of its geographical location and natural resources.

Incidentally, Southern Philippines Development Authority, a lead government agency under the office of the President that is charged with helping foster and accelerate socio-economic development in the Mindanao region, is putting up a business trading center in Koronadal. The project is part of the over-all efforts of the government in promoting small and medium enterprises that enhance tourism, trade, agriculture and livelihood projects. It is a modern one-stop business center that will also serve as venue for conventions, meetings, and family leisure trips in the area. This is part of the new image of SPDA whose chairman is Saeed A. Daof and administrator is Sultan Yahya Jerry Tomawis.

Simultaneous with the rites in Koronadal city were celebrations held in different parts of the country, including the Luneta in Manila.

A highlight of the separate independence day celebrations was the distribution of contracts by the President and stewards of the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) in 18 sites, the contracts totaling 56,299. Similar contracts were distributed June 13, thus bringing a total 68,013 contracts.      

Mrs. Arroyo’s speech towards the end of the colorful ceremonies emphasized that heroism comes in various forms, that it is not obsolete. In the past, she said, if the country’s heroes fought and died for independence and political freedom, “Filipinos (today) should be inspired to unite and help combat the effects of the global economic crisis.”

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A “leading light” in the University of the Philippines, Dr. Ledivina V. Carino passed away June 12. A reflection of how much her colleagues and friends held her in high esteem was the series of memorial services they held in her honor at the Church of the Risen Lord, at the UP Diliman campus, and at Ellinwood-Malate Church yesterday. Interment of her remains will be at the Heritage Park in Parañaque after the 9 o’clock service at Ellinwood this morning.

At Sunday’s service at CRL organized by the UP community, speakers included university president Emerlinda Roman, former presidents Jose Abueva and Nemesio Prudente, chancellor Sergio S. Cao and professor Leonor Briones. All of the nine speakers praised her intellectual prowess and achievements. But most of them talked about her being very caring, compassionate, kind, and warm.

Ledie’s husband, Ben Carino and their two children, Benjie and Yasmin were at the services, as were her sisters former Court of Appeals Justice Delilah Magtolis and her husband Gani, and Nieve Rosete and her husband Leo.

I met Ledie in 1961, after we had just finished our college courses, she with a degree in public administration (cum laude) from the UP, and I with a BA from Silliman University, in Dumaguete City. I stayed at the ladies’ dormitory of Cosmopolitan Church on Taft avenue where Ledie and her friends would converge to discuss church activities and other concerns. Ledie would obtain her masters in political science at the University of Hawaii in 1964, and her Ph.D. in sociology at Indiana University in 1970. I knew she was very intelligent, but it was only at the rites at CRL the other night, that I learned from the eulogies and the program citing her accomplishments that she was one of the brightest gems of the UP.

She was elected to the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Philippines in 1995 in recognition of her outstanding works and accomplishments in the fields of public administration, political science and sociology which spanned a range of issues and approaches in development studies from rural to urban development, from local autonomy to national governance, from bureaucratic corruption to the imperatives of the civil service, and from participatory development models and approaches to a focus on the elite.

Ledie wrote, co-authored, or edited a long list of books, monographs and papers, two of which won awards — the first “golden book award for excellence in the technical book category” in 1981 for a Development Academy of the Philippines publication on the lessons from the first career executive service development program, barrio immersion; and the UP annual research award (with her husband, Dr. Benjamin V. Carino) for a landmark study of internal migration for national development. Judging from her scholarly works, Ledie’s substantive concerns cut across the artificial divisions of the academic social science disciplines.

In 1993, the National Research Council of the Philippines bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award Social Sciences on her. Her mind was recognized by the international science community which made her convenor and lead scholar in UNESCO conferences.

Among Dr. Carino’s many cherished awards is her being the youngest and one of only 18 ever to be appointed university professor, the highest academic rank in the UP (August 1993 to April 2007).

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