New PACERS Board

On February 21, 2008, elections for the new PACERS Board were held starting at 12 noon during the Convention. After four members have been elected, the old (outgoing) Board together with the newly elected ones came together and elected among themselves those who were to serve the positions in the new Board. Election among themselves took place before supper of the second night at the Bayview Park Hotel, site of the Annual Convention.

Herein is the list of the Board for this year 2008-2009:

Chair - Dr. Julian Montano
Vice-Chair - Dr. Susan Estanislao
Corporate Secretary - Dr. Susie Eala
Executive Council:
President - Dr. Leo Capeding
Vice-President - Dr. Christine Saldivar
Secretary - Dr. Benny Lascano
Treasurer - Ms. Liza Suarez
Auditor - Dr. Ruffy Ramos III
Member - Fr. Francisco Bustamante, SJ

The outgoing President Fr. Bernardo R. Collera, SVD served as Chair of the COMELEC. You are sure it was done transparently, even if the culture around the country seems different. He has served out the term limits set by the PACERS Constitutions, which is "two years per term but not more than two terms." He has served as Board Member while on the 1st year of his 1st term. On the 2nd year of the 1st term, he was elected Vice-President. Then, after he was reelected for another term of two years, he served all of these two years as President.

Here are some of the pictures during the election process:

Serious huh? Of course we do. It's our commitment and passion for the organization, and the profession at large. PACERS has been known for this in the past 32 years of its life.

The Chair is not talking about who next to elect. We keep our candidates to ourselves, and release them when the time for writing the names of our candidates comes. It was indeed fun.

We talk about other things as well but not the next person for which position. The votes on the ballots say it all. My back shows I wrote all the proceedings.

Dr. Ramos watches with controlled excitement at the voting process. He has cast his vote already while everyone was still discerning and writing the name of the next candidate.

Absent during the elections were Drs. Susie Eala and Leo Capeding. Dr. Eala had another meeting to attend to while Dr. Capeding had classes in DLSU. Their votes were consulted though, and contributed to the ones submitted during this process.

Thank God there's a new Board. Now I can rest in peace. God bless all their efforts. But if I get new data from the new Board, it would be my pleasure to post them here. In the first place, it was my membership in the PACERS Board that became the inspiration for me to open this Blog, so that I could share the "goings on" of the Board. My gratitude to everyone. I shall surely miss you. But who knows? I might be back. God bless

Some Pictures at the Annual Convention 2008

These are Drs. Julian Montano, current PACERS Chair (seated) and Ruffy Ramos III (standing) in all smiles. The turnout of this Convention was simply good, about 170+ attended! Thanks God!


That's yours truly delivering my prepared Welcome Address (you can read its full text in the next blog). I am wearing my 5-gallon Texas cowboy hat!
Pa-effect ba!

These are the Mavericks 2007-2008 PACERS Board. From the left: Dr. Julian Montano (Chair), Dr. Susana Estanislao (Vice-Chair), Dr. Susie Eala(Corporate Secretary), myself (President, Executive Council), Fr. Eku Bustamante, SJ (Vice-President), Dr. Leo Capeding (Executive Secretary), Liza Suarez (Treasurer), Dr. Ruffy Ramos (Auditor), and Dr. Benny Lascano (Member). Aren't they wonderful! Thanks, dear colleagues!

The room was packed! Coffee overflowing, the panels were intellectually stimulating, the presentations interesting, all challenging us to be active researchers as we practice Counseling in our respective fields.

h the rites of gratitude! This is me thanking our dear colleague Dr. Barbie Wong-Fernandez after the 1st panel discussion with the 10th volume of the Philippine Journal of Counseling Psychology and some other token. Thanks indeed, dear colleagues! Seated are Drs. (all Emy's coincidentally) Liwag of Ateneo, and Villar of St. Scholastica! Scientist-practitioners all!!! Muchas gracias. Dr. Liwag opened her presentation with the statement: Adam and Eve were the first scientist-practitioners! Later Dr. Villar said that our clients are to be aforded through our Counseling the freedom of choice and improvement of well-being! Dr. Barbie gave a nicely laid-out Q&A format of her presentation which proved to be very enlightening.

32nd PACERS Annual Convention Welcome Address

I'd like to record and share here the Welcome Address I delivered last February 20, 2008 during our 32nd PACERS Annual Convention at the Bayview Park Hotel right in front of the US Embassy along Roxas Boulevard, the same place we had for our Annual Convention last year. The event is on its third day now.

Here is my Welcome Address:

As late as last night, I received text messages and calls inquiring as to whether our Convention were to proceed or not as scheduled. I replied to them, saying that even if the former President Cory ralllies in the streets, or the present President starts to descend the stairs of Malacañan (kahit pa magpa-rally si Cory o bumaba si GMA sa mga hagdanan ng Malacañan, tuloy na tuloy tayo!) we shall proceed as scheduled. After all, our Convention happens only once a year. The car I drove coming here was seen by the valet parking man t have been emitting smoke - I will attend to it later - but onward we will with this Convention.

The hearts of each one of us in the PACERS Board are all full of joy to see you today and in the next two days. We have done our best and hope we can serve you.

We have readied for you the Convention kit. We have the Program which shows us the flow of this Convention. This is one Convention wherein whatever transpires will be documented. For those at the back farther from the front, we are setting up a screen which you can look at to keep you from stretching your necks and eyes.

We have three panel discussions to help us capture what we at PACERS want to advocate: “Nurturing a Research Culture in the Counseling Practice,” our theme for this year’s Annual Convention. It is when we practice Counseling from a scientist-practitioner perspective that we can see the need for research. I remember Dr. Villar, in one of the classes I studied under her, mentioning the phenomenon on “symptom substitution” which further stirred my interest in Counseling while keeping a critical mind which Research helped clarify and substantiate in my understanding. Ethics is an essential component in doing research. What we deal with are not simply problems; we are persons dealing with other persons. Hence, the dignity of the human client, whether an individual, or group or institution, requires respect which is enshrined in the ethics of our practice and research. Since we live in a post-modern world, we need to be constantly updated; hence trends and issues in research will be tackled as well.

Regularly, for the past 5 years that I know, we have always been blessed with poster and paper presentors. To help us choose which topic to go or listen to or see, we have readied an Abstract handout, something which we have been having since last year. We have compiled for you and our posterity this document which you can read again and again and maybe inspire you as you tread the road as a scientist-practitioner doing research as you practice Counseling. Urie Bronfenbrenner is the spirit behind these presentations so that all can be updated and up-to-date in our practice.

We have three Workshops on the third day. They are all meant for updating and introduction into the Research business. You may choose to attend either: Qualitative Research Designs, Doing Action Research, or Conceptualizing your Research. As you can see, these workshops have been organized with you in mind, according to the needs of your current level of education on this area of our profession.

We shall be giving the certificates of participation, attendance or appearance on the third day in the afternoon. If you need them earlier, please let us know so we can address your need. Since the secret of successful and up to date practice is Evaluations, we have prepared two sets of Evaluations – for the Convention and for the Workshops. Do let us know what you liked about them, and what you think we still need to grow in our next Conventions.

By all means, partake of our celebration of Counseling. Try to get to know each other better. Let us ally with each other, learn from and grow with each other. It is the Counselor who should understand better our fellow Counselors.

“Thank You” is not enough for your coming. Especially for our resource persons, I have included you in my Masses since last Sunday (para fresh pa ang Blessings!). Indeed it is our pride and joy to hold this Annual Convention, the 32nd since PACERS was born.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Welcome to our 32nd PACERS Annual Convention 2008! Mabuhay! God bless!

DepEd Advisory For 2008 Convention Available Online

This is to let everyone who might want to get their own copy of the DepEd advisory which we are to provide during the 2008 PACERS 32nd Annual Convention which is ongoing, now on its 3rd day. The said advisory can be found in the following site: http://www.deped.gov.ph/cpanel/uploads/issuanceImg/DA%20No.%20259,%20s.%202007.pdf. I shall link it too in case this site can't be clicked, k? Happy participation in our seminar-workshop on Research. God bless

http://http://www.deped.gov.ph/cpanel/uploads/issuanceImg/DA%20No.%20259,%20s.%202007.pdf