Dr. Francisco Magno is a professor of Political Science and Development Studies at De La Salle University (DLSU) where he occupied such positions as Director of the La Salle Institute of Governance, Director of the Social Development Research Center, and Chair of the Political Science Department. He is currently coordinating the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Localization Project of DLSU with the City Government of Manila. He has conducted teaching and research in various universities, including Osaka University, Waseda University, Hiroshima University, Florida State University, University of Hawaii, and University of the Philippines. Elected as President of the Philippine Political Science Association from 2015 to 2017, he was selected to head the Commission on Higher Education Technical Panel on Political Science from 2020-2024. In the year 2000, he became the first Political Scientist to receive an Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines. He finished his PhD in Political Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa under an East-West Center scholarship, and his BA and MA in Political Science from the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

Jessa joined the Institute in 2009 as a research and project assistant. She obtained her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Makati, graduating magna cum laude. As an administrative assistant, she provides project support and coordinates DLSU-JRIG's events. In addition, Ms. Pacheco is the organization's Financial Officer and manages all of the Institute's project grants and financial reporting.

Benz is the Program Manager for the Institute. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from UPLB and is pursuing a Master of Arts in Sociology at UP Diliman. Before joining the Institute, he worked as a Research Assistant on a national socio-economic study on corn and vegetable production funded by DOST-PCAARRD and as a Program Associate at the Asian Institute of Management. His research interests include religion and spirituality, politics, and governance.

Ana is the Office Assistant in the Jesse M. Robredo Institute of Governance. She is a graduate of BS in Office Management with Efficiency Award at Kalinga State University. As an Office Assistant, she performs administrative and office support for the Director and assists in the operational activities of the Institute in areas such as office and events management.

Ian Jayson R. Hecita is currently a Faculty Member of the Department of Political Science and Development Studies at De La Salle University. He is a trained and experienced public policy and governance specialist with over twenty-two (22) years of experience working with national government agencies, local government units, civil society organizations, Philippine and foreign universities, and international development institutions. He has co-led and implemented research programs, capacity development projects, and community engagement initiatives focusing on local governance, sustainable development, open government, and participatory governance. He was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for Energy Systems, Economics, and Sustainability of Florida State University in 2010. He was a Fellow at the International Academy of Freedom of the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung in 2009.  His research thrusts include local governance,  decentralization, open government, and citizen/ civil society participation. 

Dana is a Program and Research Associate at the Institute. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines - Diliman, with a bachelor of arts degree in communication research. Her internship and organizational work during her undergraduate years allowed Dana to engage in market research projects and public relations. She also enjoys researching mediated political communication, religion and power, and construction of identities.

Danela is a Program and Research Associate at the Institute. 

She graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines- Diliman in 2024 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. In the same year, she presented her undergraduate research, the impact of one’s schema of forgiveness on their forgiveness of a historical injustice, in the 48th National Conference of PSSP. Since graduation, she has been facilitating and participating in psychosocial support sessions for various organizations. Her current research interests lie in clinical and community psychology, with a focus on psychosocial support and collective care practices.

Kiarra is a Program and Research Associate at the Institute. 

During her undergraduate years, she worked as a part-time researcher for Internews Philippines on a two-year research project focused on strengthening disinformation resilience in the Philippines (2022–2024). She also served as a junior research assistant on a study about human rights and legal systems in BARMM through the DLSU Social Development Research Center. Kiarra graduated summa cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Her research interests include contentious politics, social movements, and the intersections between and among development, governance systems, and human rights. In her spare time, Kiarra enjoys running, freediving, reading for leisure, and going on food crawls.

Erika is a Program and Research Associate at the Institute. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a degree in Psychology and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Social Psychology at the same institution. Her research interests lie in the field of social and political psychology, with a focus on social identities, collective action, and group behavior. She has participated in research studies on the same topics.

Matthew is a Program and Research Associate at the Institute. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Adamson University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. During his undergraduate years, he served as Creative Director and Minister for Artistic and Cultural Affairs for a university-based political science organization. Prior to joining the Institute, Matthew gained valuable experience through an internship at the Manila City Hall under the Agenda and Briefing Division, where he contributed to administrative and policy-related tasks. His research interests focus on governance, political behavior, and the intersections of race, class, and gender. 

Dr. Julio Teehankee is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at De La Salle University where he served as Chair of the Political Science Department (1994-2007); Chair of the International Studies Department (2008-2013); and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (2013-2017). He also served as President of the Philippine Political Science Association (2017-2019) and the Asian Political and International Studies Association (2009-2011). Currently, he is the Philippine representative to the Council of the International Political Science Association. He is also the Regional Manager of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) for Southeast Asia. He is a Senior Fellow and former Director of the La Salle Institute of Governance (LSIG). He appears regularly as a political analyst for local and international media outlets and his YouTube channel – “Talk Politics with Julio Teehankee.”

Dr. Ador is the Director of the Jesse M. Robredo Institute of Governance and a Full Professor of the Department of Political Science, both in De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. He is a development and governance researcher and practitioner with a substantial research portfolio and extensive experience in capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and public policy research in the Philippines, the ASEAN region, and South Korea. Dr. Torneo's areas of interest include public sector reform, performance management, international migration, emotional labor, and the use of data in development and governance work. As a development and governance practitioner, he has worked with various government, non-government organizations, and international development organizations in the Philippines, the ASEAN region, and South Korea, including AFoCo, the World Bank, UNDP, USAID, and WHO. His work has been published by the Philippine Political Science Journal, Asia-Pacific Social Science Review, Asian Politics & Policy, International Journal of Technology, Policy, and Management, International Migration, and Public Performance Management Review, and Journal of Public Affairs Education, among others.

Dr. Reyes is a policy analyst, governance adviser, legislative specialist and women’s rights advocate. She is an international consultant on public policy and governance, social development and gender equality. At present, she is the Regional Gender and Governance Adviser of the Center for Legislative Development.

She was Chief of the Asia-Pacific and Arab States of UN WOMEN, New York for six years (2005-2011) where she directly supervised four sub-regional offices in East and Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Pacific, and Arab States. She was UNDP Senior Gender Adviser to the Government of Pakistan for three years (2001-2004) where she designed the capacity development program for 36,000 women councilors and conceptualized the Women’s Political School. She was also Director of Gender and Governance of the New York-based Women’s Environment and Development Organization (1999-2001) and spearheaded the Global Campaign for “50-50 Get the Balance Right!”. She taught Political Science at De La Salle University for over 20 years (1971-1991) and was the first Chairperson of the Department of Political Science.

Dr. Reyes has written and published numerous articles and monographs on Women’s Political Participation. Her recent publication is on “Gender and the Electoral System: What Works for Women” and “Gender Assessment of the Legislative Structures and Processes of Selected Southeast Asian Countries from a CEDAW Perspective.” She has just completed a study of “Gender Relations in the Extra Judicial Killings (EJK) Household” in the Philippines in collaboration with the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) of Miriam College. She has also conducted several trainings for WAGI’s Women’s Political Participation Project. At present, she is doing research on “Gender and Governance in BARMM,” funded by the Center for Women, Peace and Security of the London School of Economics.

Dr. Cheryll Soriano is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, De La Salle University Manila. She has a Ph.D in Communications and New Media from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Arts in Development Studies (Politics of Alternative Development) from the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, the Hague.

Her research focuses on the intersections of digital cultures, social inequality, and civic engagement and has published over 30 articles in international journals and book volumes on these themes. She was APEC Women in Research Fellow at the Center for Communication, Politics and Culture at RMIT University, Melbourne and worked with the Presidential Management Staff.

Dr. Christianne Collantes is an Associate Professor of Political Science whose research interests include gender politics, reproduction, globalization and global political economy. She recently completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and obtained her Doctoral Degree in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2016. Her most recently published works can be found in Critical Asian Studies and South East Asia Research, and her book Reproductive Dilemmas in Metro Manila: Faith, Intimacies, and Globalization was under Palgrave MacMillan UK in the fall of 2018.

Ma. Ella C. Oplas is a faculty member at the Economics Department of DLSU with exposure to working with various international development-oriented organizations, government and private sector. Ms. Oplas has a Master's degree in Applied Economics and is currently completing her Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at De La Salle University. Ms. Oplas has worked as a Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist and Stocktaking Consultant for the Institute. She has experience working with JRIG's following projects: PAMANA Midterm Review (2016-2017), Disaster Risk Reduction through Local Collaboration (2015-2016), Empowered Participatory Governance Towards Progress in North Cotabato (2014-2015), and Institutionalizing Civil Society Monitoring and Evaluation and Assessment of Public Service Delivery to the Poor (2011-2012).

Dr. Sherwin Ona is an associate professor of Political Science at De La Salle University (DLSU). His current engagements and interests are in the areas of Open Government, Human security, Cybersecurity policies and Disaster informatics. He is also the current chairperson of the political science department and the former research and advanced studies director of the College of Computer Studies, DLSU.

He also served as a technical consultant to various government agencies like the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (2005), the Department of Science and Technology-ICTO (2012), the Commission on Higher Education (2017), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (2018). In 2019, he was appointed as a consultant of the UN-Asia Pacific Center for ICT for Development (APCICT) on Data Governance and Interoperability.

Dr. Ona is a fellow of the Philippine Pubic Safety College and a non-resident fellow of the Stratbase-Albert Del Rosario Institute. He is also an auxiliary officer of the Philippine Coast Guard with the rank of commander.

Dr. Homer Yabut is an Associate Professor of the Psychology Department. He obtained his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from De La Salle University. He teaches Social Psychology, and Statistics and Research in both undergraduate and graduate courses. He is a licensed psychologists and a certified Social Psychologist.

Dr. Yabut's research include topics about Psychology of religion and spirituality, collective actions, religious mass gatherings and adolescents. He also obtained both internationally and locally funded researches which include maternal and neonatal health services, scholarships in the Philippines and indigenous cultures in the Philippines. He is a member of Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP), Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) and Pambansang Samahan sa Sikolohiyang Pilipino (PSSP).

Dr. Jeremiah Joven Joaquin is a Professor of Philosophy at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, where he is also a Research Fellow at the Southeast Asian Research Center and Hub (SEARCH) and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Language Technologies (CeLT) and the Jesse Robredo Institute of Governance (JRIG). He works mostly in logic and metaphysics but occasionally dabbles in epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, gender studies, experimental philosophy, political philosophy, and recently, in philosophical issues about public health. He has published several papers on these topics in various internationally-reputable academic journals.

Georgeline Jaca is an Assistant Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Political Science of De La Salle University. She obtained her BA in Political Science and MA in Development Policy from De La Salle University. She is currently a PhD student in Osaka University where she also received a Master’s degree in International Public Policy. She teaches courses in citizenship and governance, fundamentals of political science, and quantitative political analysis. Her areas of work and research include electoral behavior and participation, public performance and management, and the conduct and analysis of quantitative social science research.

Dr. Grace Roldan is a Full Professor at the Department of Political and Development Studies, College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University, Philippines where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the political science and development studies programs. She obtained her Ph.D. in Philippine Studies (specializing in bureaucracy and external relations) at the University of the Philippines Asian Center. She is the Book Review editor of the Philippine Political Science Journal and has published in the European Journal of Sustainable Development, Asia-Pacific Social Science Review, Philippine Political Science Journal, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, and The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies. Her research interests include governance and development, migrants, and information and communications technology for social inclusion.

Dr. Cleo Calimbahin is a Full Professor and Chair in the Department of Political Science and Development Studies at the De La Salle University. Her research focuses on election administration, corruption studies, and comparative democratization. She co-edited the book Patronage Democracy: Clans, Clients and Competition in Local Elections with Julio Teehankee (ADMU Press, 2022). Her published work appears in journals such as Contemporary Southeast Asia, Asian Affairs: An American Review, and Philippine Political Science Journal. She completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Fulbright Fellow. She received her MSc in International Politics of Asia and Africa from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Dr. Calimbahin has provided technical assistance and research to the government agencies, international organizations and foundations. She is a Board Member and Fellow of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and a Fellow at the Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation.

Dr. Anthony Lawrence Borja is a an Assistant Professorial Lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Development Studies at the De La Salle University. He took his BA and MA in Political Science from De La Salle University where he is currently working as an Assistant Professorial Lecturer. His current research projects are on democratic theory, political participation, citizenship, and the theory of popular sovereignty.