Luis Ma. Ongsiapco, MA - Director for Myanmar Programme

(based in Maungdaw, Myanmar)

Mr. Ongsiapco began his service with CFSI in 1988 as a Member of the Board of Trustees, when he was then First Vice President of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB). He eventually became Chairperson of CFSI. He gave up this post in 1999 to lead CFSI's response to the humanitarian emergency in West Timor, Indonesia involving more than 250,000 refugees from East Timor. His service as Project Director in West Timor was brought to an abrupt end when all humanitarian workers had to be evacuated from West Timor owing to severely deteriorated security conditions. Once back in the Philippines, Mr. Ongsiapco became Director for Humanitarian Assistance, giving him responsibility for overseeing CFSI's rapidly growing operations in Mindanao, the Manila-based Urban Refugee Project, and CFSI's disaster response efforts in various parts of the Philippines. In October of 2003, Mr. Ongsiapco, a citizen of the Philippines, assumed leadership of CFSI activity in Myanmar, where he remains, based in Maungdaw, Northern Rakhine State. Under his leadership, the Myanmar Programme has grown significantly, in both scope and size.

Mr. Ongsiapco earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University and a Master of Arts in Education at the same university. He taught for several years and then spent five years with Operation Brotherhood, which included work in Laos and the OB Montessori schools in the Philippines. He then joined the banking industry where he spent more than twenty years in human resources management. During some of these years, he was - in addition to his work at the UCPB - President of the Bankers Council for Personnel Management, President of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines, Executive Director of Operation Smile Philippines, Chairman of the Refugee Assistance Foundation, and President of the UCPB Foundation. .

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