Dr. Lisa Grace S. Bersales
IN FOCUS
Dr. Lisa Grace S. Bersales, Undersecretary, Commission on Population and Development
UP Life: Parents encourage her independence
Undersecretary Lisa Bersales’ parents, Jose F. Sotocinal and Teresita Villasor Rio, both went to public schools outside of Bacolod where their roots are; her father at the National University and Silliman University, and her mother from University of the Philippines College of Education. It seemed to be the right thing for her to do as well, hence she enrolled at UP in Diliman, entering the BS Physics program. After her freshman year, however, her mother Teresita suggested that she should shift to BS Statistics even though she did not know much about it. Thankfully, she listened to her mother, and she did well in the program. Upon finishing her degree, she was offered a scholarship for her graduate studies at the same college. She then became a junior faculty member of the UP School of Statistics. While teaching, she received a fellowship grant for her PhD, finishing her doctoral studies in 1989, or 15 years after entering as Freshman in UP.
Usec Bersales eventually became Dean of the UP School of Statistics, from 1996-1998, and again from 2002-2008. After her retirement from UP in November 2022, Usec Bersales was appointed Professor Emeritus of the University of the Philippines in April 2023. A Professor Emeritus is a title for life and is conferred upon retired faculty members in recognition of their exceptional achievements and exemplary service to the university.
Public Service: Giving Back
In 2014, Usec Bersales was UP Vice President for Planning and Finance under UP President Alfredo Pascual, when she was asked to apply as head of the newly created Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), after abolishing the four major statistical agencies. She became the first National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of the Philippines, serving for five years from 2014 to 2019.
As the first National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of the Philippine Statistics Authority, she brought in 30 years of experience as researcher and member of the academe. At the same time, she had worked with both public and private sectors as a statistics development partner. With PSA, she led the restructuring of the country’s national statistical system, redefining roles in response to new challenges, as well as developing statistical standards and methodologies for sectoral statistics.
PSA and Beyond:
PSA played an active role in the interagency and expert group on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators that developed the 230 unique global SDG indicators agreed upon by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2016. In the Philippines, a series of workshops on SDG indicators were conducted using the global indicator framework as benchmark. In May that year, PSA evaluated the indicators using the tier system of the expert group and determined data availability including disaggregation.
To address the data challenge of monitoring the SDGs, the PSA worked on a national data ecosystem utilizing various sources of data keeping the standards for data quality and comparability, ensuring that even as indicators shall be contextualized in the country, there will be coherence in the national and global monitoring.
Globally, Usec Bersales’ significant contributions include being co-chair of the Interagency Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal (IAEG) on the SDG Indicators from 2015 to 2017, vice chair of the Regional Steering Group (RSG) of the CRVS Decade of Asia and the Pacific from 2015 to 2016 representing the Philippines, and chair of the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2018. She is currently a board member of the Open Day Watch, a member of the Thematic Research Network for Data and Statistics (TReNDS) of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and in the editorial team of the Statistical Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics.
She was elected as the chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) Board from 2016-2019, a significant global achievement.
PARIS21 aims to improve the production, quality, availability, and use of statistics for informed decision making for sustainable development. Established in 1999 by the United Nations, the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank as a response to the need for accurate and reliable data to achieve and track progress toward development goals, its vision is better data for all – a world where everyone can produce and use high-quality data and statistics to advance sustainable development for all people.
While in PSA and as a member of various local and international organizations, where she was allowed to be “seconded,” and at the same time staying in UP as long as she continued doing research. After 5 years, when she finished her term at PSA, she went back to UP because that is where she wanted to retire. Atty. Danilo Concepcion was then UP President, and he reappointed her to her previous position as VP for Planning and Finance, until her retirement in November 2022.
But she was called again to public service after retirement, first with her reappointment as UP VP Planning and Finance of President Concepcion from November 19,2022 to January 12,2023 and then her appointment as head of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) and Undersecretary for Population and Development on January 13,2023 until the time of this publication. CPD used to be Population Commission or POPCOM which was under the Department of Health. It is now under the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev), formerly the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
From a Statistician to Data Producer for Policy Making
As the national statistician, most of her research were focused on economic data and expertise forecasting. Now, as head of the Commission on Population and Development, her focus is all about data– looking into population data issues such as fertility, aging, migration, migration issues, teenage pregnancy, even the controversial comprehensive sexuality education.
Speaking of aging, as per the UN definition, the Philippines is projected to become an Aging Population by the year 2030, which means an increase in people above age 65. Batanes, for instance, which is the smallest province in the Philippines, and the least populated with less than 20,000 people, is shown to belong to the Aging population. This may be attributed to the younger inhabitants leaving the province to study, work and live in Metro Manila or even abroad.
CPD looks at population data, from womb to tomb, the life cycle approach. Maternal needs, maternal care, infant care, early childhood development, teenagers, the working population, then the older people. Population issues are given focus, which then cascades this information to all the other agencies concerned with each sector. Since CPD is under NEDA which looks at development issues, in the Commission on Population and Development, the priority is on population issues, where there is constant coordination with various departments and sectoral agencies to help streamline all the data they have.
Usec Bersales coordinates with various agencies, such as the Department of Health, Department of Education, the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the National Commission of Senior Citizens, National Commission on Disability Affairs, DOLE, TESDA, the Department of Migrant Workers, and of course, CPD is still closely working with the Philippine Statistics Authority to get all the necessary data.
For teenage pregnancy data, CPD passes it on to the Department of Education for them to address this. In 2023, the 19th Congress filed Senate Bill 1979 called the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2023, or an Act Providing for National Policy in Preventing Adolescent Pregnancies, Institutionalizing Social Protection for Adolescent Parents, and Providing Financial Assistance. In 2022, there was a 35% increase in adolescent pregnancy, making the Philippines one of the highest teenage pregnancies in Asia. The Bill highlights the State’s responsibility to ensure that adolescents have the right environment and support to reach their full potential. But the Bill has yet to be signed into law because of the controversial comprehensive sexual reproductive education.
On the part of CPD, Usec Bersales says that her office encourages LGUs to achieve the Seal of Good Governance, wherein one component is providing a dedicated Teen Center, a safe space where teenagers can go for productive activities that encourage human capital development, importance of finishing their education, and other information necessary for their situation.
And for the aging population, CPD works with the National Commission of Senior Citizens. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) mobilizes manpower and education, and for the aging population, TESDA plays a big role in reskilling them as the government aims for an active and healthy aging communities.
And from all these data and information, Usec Bersales mentions the need to go to the grassroots, with the Commission working with the local government units (LGUs) and the barangays, so they are able to implement national policies and programs. These are done through the regional offices of the Commission. They lend technical assistance to LGUs on collecting data and then use available data so the LGUs can integrate these data in their local plans especially for their population. It is a big task for the Commission, although admittedly there is still the need for more staffing for CPD.
For the staff, Usec Bersales values the need to conduct regular learning sessions, to equip them with proper tools in dealing with data, with other agencies, and with LGUs. They want to be the thought leaders for population and development.
Working with the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC) for the Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action 2023-2028
Not only does CPD work with government agencies and LGUs to strengthen its objectives. CPD also closely works with NGOs and organizations. With Usec Bersales leading CPD, the Commission produced a comprehensive Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action (PPD-POA), which is focused on population data. as a support to the Philippine Development Plan.
Usec Bersales credits and is grateful to the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC), with Executive Director Dr. Lourdes Portus at its helm, for helping CPD craft its Plan of Action for 2023-2028. For about six months, Usec Bersales and her staff, together with the PSSC Team, sat down and worked on a Five (5)-year Plan of Action, “which is critical in laying the foundation of a more accelerated process in achieving the development agenda set in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.” As written in its website, the PPD-POA provides a roadmap for coordinated and organized efforts to optimize demographic opportunities and to address the persistent population issues at all levels to support the development agenda of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr..
PSSC also helped in the writing of the CPD Strategic Plan. Future collaborations with PSSC will be on implementing the research agenda for the PPD-POA.
Career Mentors
For Usec Bersales, without her mentors, she would not have thrived in her career. She recognizes several people who have helped shape her public service career. The first is former Dean of the UP School of Statistics, the late Dr. Angeles Buenaventura. She was College Secretary when Usec Bersales graduated and encouraged her to join the faculty. Dr. Buenaventura eventually became Dean and was her mentor in economic statistics, and a good coach to the Usec on how to properly deal with people.
Another one is Dr. Robert Mariano, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who taught Usec Bersales econometrics forecasting. Econometrics forecasting is a process used to anticipate or predict future economic conditions through economic variables and conditions.
The Usec also remembers her high school Mathematics teacher, Patria Arro was a big influence in her career. Teacher Arro taught Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus, and was the one who paved the way for Usec Bersales to be interested in statistics especially when her mother Teresita prodded her to shift to this course.
In her academic career, Usec Bersales served under two Presidents of the University of the Philippines: President Alfredo E. Pascual, serving from 2011 to 2017, and Atty. Danilo Concepcion, who served as UP President from 2017 to 2023. She considers both of them as great career mentors. For instance, while in PSA, she was able to confidently request and defend the budget to the Department of Budget and Management. This takes good planning, which she learned from Atty. Concepcion. Usec Bersales believes it takes excellent and proper communication within your office to be able to successfully implement plans, programs, and projects. And then once you attend Budget hearings, it is important to just answer the questions straight on, rather than give unnecessary explanation and information. For high-level meetings and even crisis management situations, you have to know how to conduct yourself and give consistent messaging.
Finding Time for Self-Care
Being based in Manila, particularly in the UP Diliman community because of work, having her family in Bacolod means she has to manage her time properly so she can also spend time with her loved ones. Her father who lives in Bacolod is 94 years old, as well as her husband and their three children and four grandchildren. She then makes it a point to visit them on weekends or holidays. She is always on the lookout for airline seat sales to get a good deal and plan her trips early on.
Usec Bersales also makes it a point to meet her long-time girlfriends who are also mostly professionals in academe. This means having dinner and a chance to catch up on their personal lives, work, or current national issues. She finds these breaks good for their mental health. Her friends are also the ones who remind her to slow down at work and keep her grounded.
To the Future Statisticians
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, taking the UPCAT means reviewing on your own. For Usec, all of high school is already a preparation for college. Nowadays, high school students attend review centers in preparation for taking college entrance examinations. Review centers, Usec Bersales believes, are helpful in teaching the examinees to learn how to manage their time while taking the entrance exams.
Statistics nowadays is much more different from decades ago. It has a different form now; you deal with data and data science. So, for the future statisticians, Usec Bersales firmly believes that taking this path will give them great opportunities once they finish their studies. Her advice: “ . . . know where your heart is and use your degree to benefit our society and help the country. Make sure that what you do will not be harmful and you apply what you learn for the good of others.”
Usec Bersales is thankful for listening to her mother back in the day. Her career as a Statistician has brought her honor, unsurpassed knowledge and experience, local and global recognition, and colleagues and friends for life.
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