DAP President Antonio D. Kalaw Jr. recently regrouped and renamed several groups and units in the Academy in an attempt to “improve the delivery mechanisms” in the organization as well as “strengthen (its) institutional and corporate units.”
The Academy’s top man specifically mentioned the need to “accordingly strengthen and to have a more responsive, reliable, and efficient delivery of corporate/institutional support mechanisms… (and) services” to the Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee as well as to the President himself and the different operating groups, centers, programs and projects in the face of the “increasing” volume of business and opportunities for the Academy.
Kalaw also cited the need to have “a more responsive and refocused projection” of the Academy’s mandated products, services and programs by improving its functional operating delivery mechanisms.
Offices renamed
Towards this end, he renamed four existing offices to more closely reflect the new focus. These are the Programs Operations Group under Senior Vice President Magdalena Mendoza, which would henceforth be known as the Office of the Senior Vice President for Programs (OSVP-P), the Center for Quality and Competitiveness under Vice President Arnel Abanto, which would be called Productivity and Development Center (PDC), the Center for Knowledge Management under Vice President Trygve Bolante, which would be referred to as Center for Organizational Development (COD), and the Center for Sustainable Human Development under Vice President Alan Cajes, which was renamed Sustainable Human Development Program (SHDP).
Corporate Affairs strengthened
Kalaw also strengthened the Corporate Affairs Group under Bolante by reactivating the Corporate Concerns Center concurrently headed by the group’s top officer and renaming the two offices under it, the Corporate Operations and Strategic Management Office (COSMO) and the Corporate Marketing and Communications Office (CMCO).
The COSMO, which is under Director Normandy Nangca, would now be known simply as Corporate Operations and Strategic Management (COSM) while the CMCO, which is headed by Director Maria Aurora Umali, would bear the title Corporate Communications (CorCom).
At the same time, the Institutional Marketing Center (IMC) has been reactivated and would be headed by a managing director, while the Council of Fellows, which is currently headed by Executive Fellow Dr. Carlos Tabunda Jr., would continue as a delivery mechanism of the President in the areas of idea generation, new business development, new product/program development, and new product/program incubation and pilot testing while acting as secretariat to the Publications Board.
Third office order
The Support Operations Group was also an object of realignment under a third office order issued by Kalaw to the same effect last December 7.
The office under Senior Vice President Bernardo Dizon has been renamed Office of the Senior Vice President for Services (OSVP-S), and would have the following functional service units under it based on a regrouped and renamed structure: the Human Resources Management and Development Department under Managing Director Felisa Magud, the Finance Department under Acting Managing Director Anatalia Barawidan, the Administrative Department under Managing Director Monina De Armas, and the DAP Conference Center under Managing Director Ermarie Mondejar.
Through all the tweaks and changes, however, Kalaw’s mandate to the concerned parties and units is obvious: The names might be different but the standard of excellence and the distinction for which the offices have been noted remain unchanged.