REFORMS, PERFORMANCE, GOVERNANCE


(Text of speech delivered by Ricardo E. de Guzman, President of the RPG Foundation, on behalf of his father, Dr. Raul P. de Guzman, during the launch of the RPG Foundation)

Five years ago to this day, the RPG Foundation was founded to commemorate the retirement of my father, Dr. Raul P. de Guzman, from the University of the Philippines that has been his consuming passion for forty-five years.

My father’s retirement did not see a surcease of his service to the people (not of my mother’s commitment to public service). My mother, Patrocinio de Guzman, has been my father’s full partner in his career. She also pursued a parallel career in government, retiring a Deputy Director of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.

In pursuit of the high ideals of the common good and general welfare that public and private sectors of society have sought to promote since time immemorial, believing in Dr. de Guzman’s quest and acknowledging his singular dedication and faith that government institutions are critical instruments in the attainment of justice and compassion in a society beset with competing and conflicting interests, we, his family established the Raul P. de Guzman Foundation in February 1995.

The RPG Foundation aims to carry on through academic leadership, scholarship, hard work and patient research, the same impact as how public and private organizations impact upon the daily lives of the common people. The Foundation is not just a legal fiction created by law. It is an embodiment of what RPG means in its efforts to promote meaningful REFORMS, effective PERFORMANCE, and caring GOVERNANCE in the social order. These are the same efforts and determination set forth by Dr. de Guzman which succeeded in transforming – a once small unit of the UP academic community called Institute of Public Administration, occupying of a nondescript area in the UP Manila Campus, to its present stature as the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) in the premier campus of the university in Diliman.

Among the RPG Foundation’s first programs through the assistance of Dr. de Guzman’s colleagues and friends is the institution of a professional chair in his name to inspire scholarly work and commitment to a career in the University, to benefit members of the faculty of the UP-NCPAG.

The RPG Foundation is likewise supporting the RPG-Policy Study Group which was first formally organized when President Joseph Ejercito Estrada was still Vice-President. As in the case of new institutions, membership then was limited to a few.