by David C. Desamito
* Reprinted from: The PUBLIC MANAGER, Official Magazine of the Career Executive Service.
It is an unfortunate reality that we Filipinos have all come to accept – the mass departure of our educated and skilled countrymen who finding no further opportunities here, seek for the proverbial greener pasture overseas.
This phenomenon is called ‘brain drain’ and its depleting our nation with the needed intellectual and technical capital to achieve a more progressive status. What is even more sad (and troubling) is the fact that a number of these bright and talented professionals are Iskos and Iskas – scholars who benefited from government support, received the best education the country could offer and whose schooling has been funded by the Filipino taxpayer.
Fortunately for us, however, there are those who choose to buck this trend. There are those who still embrace idealism over pragmatic concerns and find the challenge of nation-building to be more than worth making the sacrifice of less financially rewarding career.
Fortunately for us, there are still Filipinos like Engineer Denis F. Vilorente: A Pisay graduate, a UP Isko, an Engineering Board Exam topnotcher, a CESO and now a 2010 GAWAD CES awardee.
An Accomplished Public Manager
Since 2005, Engineer Villorente has been at the helm of the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) where he has served in various capacities starting as Science Research Specialist in 1989. ASTI is one of the 21 agencies attached to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the one mandated to conduct R & D in the advanced fields of studies including communications engineering, microelectronics and information technology.
Holding a Director IV position at the Institute, he leads and guides the agency in the efficient and proper implementation of research and development programs and projects consistent with overall national development goals. He plans, programs, directs and controls the operational and administrative activities of the Institute and promotes and maintains close coordination between government and private sector organizations engaged in research and development activities.
As one of the 2010 GAWAD CES awardees, he is being cited for three of his most successful accomplishments. One, for leading the continued growth and promotion of research networking in the country through the Philippine Research, Education and Govern-ment Information Network or PREGINET. Two, for being an enabler of the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) technology and awareness in the country. And three, for leading the technical team involved in the certification of the automated election system.
PREGINET
PREGINET is the country’s national research and education network, linking institutions that conduct research and development work. A pioneering endeavor, PREGINET was Engineer Villorente’s brainchild. He was the one who proposed the project and eventually became its leader and champion.
PREGINET has provided a faster and more reliable way of academic collaboration among researchers and scientists. Instead of using the commercial internet, researchers could now test and experiment their ideas, concepts and theories using the network. It has connected various Philippine research institutions that span the entire country and allowed them to collaborate over the internet. Thus, through PREGINET, they were able to conduct several multi-sectoral and multi-regional projects and researches.
PREGINET likewise provided internet connectivity to govern-ment agencies enabling them to comply with the Government Information System Plan. (GISP) thereby providing a platform for them to be connected and have internet presence through the establishment of government websites.
IPv6
The uninitiated in ICT can better grasp this accomplishment if one recalls the Y2K scare or millennium bug in 1999 when everybody raced to make their computers Y2K compliant. This time, the concern is on the inevitable exhaustion of IPv4 addresses. IPv4 addresses are the numbers assigned to a computer which enable it to communicate in the world wide web. IPv4 addresses are expected to be exhausted by 2011, thus, the country should be ready to make the transition to a higher network. Engineer Villorente advocated hard for the adoption of this next generation internet technology leading to an awareness for the country’s eventual transition to IPv6 among government and telecommunications providers.
In the process of gaining IPv6 capability, ASTI drew up the Philippine Open IX, the only facility in the Philippine internet industry, operated by a neutral institution (ASTI), that allows internet traffic in a free market environment. Thus, when the IPv4 addresses are exhausted, government agencies will not have to pay for or hire IPv6 consultants because ASTI is ready and can be tapped to advise agencies on low cost alternatives.
The 2010 Automated National Elections
The Amended Automation Law provided for the creation of a Technical Evaluation Committee, which Engineer Villorente headed, allowing him to play a pivotal role in the most difficult task of certifying that the winning system worked.
As Chairman of the Committee, Engineer Villorente foresaw the eventuality that a certain percentage of the compact disks (CDs) would not properly function. If such a situation is not quickly addressed, then COMELEC’s credibility would be put on the line. He, therefore, led the ASTI in providing back-up and on-call advices even on election day.
Despite birth pains, the automated elections pushed through principally because of Engineer Villorente’s contributions. Automated technology may have been long around but he helped bring the technology to make the elections clean and honest.
CESO Brand of Leadership
Engineer Villorente is a patriotic and dedicated public servant. There were people at the Institute who had apprehensions about being involved in the automation of the elections, fearful of the controversies and criticisms which may hound them. Their fears were not unfounded as various sectors raised questions and doubted the system but Engineer Villorente rose above those fears. He patiently explained the systems involved, confident that technology would address many problems of the electoral process such as the lengthy tabulation period which makes it prone to cheating. More importantly, he saw the automation of elections as an opportunity to share his technical expertise into something very important at that particular juncture of the country’s history – having clean, credible, orderly elections.
Engineer Villorente is likewise admired by colleagues and sub-ordinates alike for the simple lifestyle that he leads. Moreover, he has made his ethical stance explicit to his staff – that one must not use one’s post to gain favor or unduly wield authority. A favorite anecdote about him relates to one incident when a high-ranking official of the COMELEC and some officials of SMARTMATIC invited him to dinner. It was late in the evening and Engineer Villorente has not had dinner yet, but he declined out of delicadeza.
Now that is one of the scholars who is indeed worthy of his investment and an official every CESO could be proud of.
Engr. Villorente is the fourth child of Dr. Ambrosio R. Villorente and the late Dr. Florencia F. Villorente of Badio, Numancia, Aklan. Denis is married to Maribeth Macapil. They have two children: Andrew 5, and Cara 2. /MP
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