(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.