ESSA Council

council for 2022 – 2024

aeon mapa

president

Works at Lupa Farm, which he co-founded with his wife in 2022. A biodynamic, permaculture farm in Tanjay, Negros Oriental. Currently they are working on converting 30 hectares of former sugarland into sustainable farms consisting of native woodlands, orchards and vegetable gardens. At the same time, they are also developing systems for organic sugarcane production in order aid neighboring farmers to move away from conventional methods Aeon Mapa is a farmer & teacher who first encountered biodynamic farming at the age of 12 in the Waldorf school, of which he was a pioneer student. In his mid-twenties he returned to teach at his old school where he rekindled his love for gardening. Over the past 12 years he has practiced Biodynamic agriculture, sharing the methods with both youth and adult farmers. A strong advocate of soil health as the starting point for any farm and the health of any society, as well as the importance of spirituality in farming.

dindin daliva

visayas council representative

Digna is a graduate of BS in Busines Administration Major in Management and BS in Commerce Major in Accounting in the University of Nueva Caceres. She is also a post graduate of Master in Disaster Management in Central Bicol State University for Agriculture and Masters in Environmental Science in the University of Nueva Caceres. She also took a special course of International Course for Non-Government Organization and Social Change in International Institute for Rural Reconstruction last 2016. Daliva’s work experience includes being a Program Head in iRelief Foundation, Inc., Program Director: Junior Rangers Program – Experiential Environmental Education for Children.

She is an earthkeeper and servant of life. She dedicates the rest of her life to healing the inner landscape, building meaningful ways torelate to all beings as much as healing the soil, ecosystems, environment and planet.

She is co-holder of a fledging ecovillage demonstrating that a way of life in harmony with the rhythms of nature is possible.

jane entoy

business sector representative

Jenalyn A. Entoy is a founder and chairperson of Pestales Agriculture Cooperative. She left her job in Metro Manila and moved in Cebu together with her friends last December 2014 and organized young men and women to form a cooperative. She devout herself in helping the less fortunate people, teaching good values and empowering members of the cooperative. Her dream is to have an Eco-village where everyone could live freely and become sustainable.

dom-an macagne

indigenous peoples sector representative

Dom-an Macagne is a community development worker volunteering her services under the Kasiyana Peace and Healing Initiatives. She belongs to the Kankana-ey speaking indigenous peoples of the Applai tribe in Sagada, Mountain Province, Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. She has almost two decades experience in rural community work with non-government organizations. Her paper ‘Begnas: dance and tapestry of peace and healing,’ is an attempt to document a persisting community cultural ritual which she finds influential in sustaining traditional ecological practices and community harmony amidst rapid disintegration and transformations occurring in indigenous cultural communities. She has also worked on anti-poverty special projects with the Department of Agriculture and Department of Social Welfare and Development. She plays the bamboo nose flute as her contribution to cultural arts and to nourish her spiritual practices. She is currently engaged in local landscape history research. She currently coordinates a village-based project on organic agriculture as she also participates in re-shaping the local tourism sector.

hon. liecel mondejar-seville

lgu sector representative

Municipal Mayor, Municipality of New Lucena, Iloilo. Farmer, Permaculturist, Organic Agriculture Practitioner and Advocate Trainings, Projects, Programs, and Awards 2011 – Advocate the Practice of Organic Agriculture in the Municipality of New Lucena – Established Municipal Technical Committee on Organic Agriculture, up to the present (2022). She conducts monthly meetings to update the members and monitors the progress of the programs 2014 Under her leadership, the Municipality of New Lucena was awarded as the TOP Performing Municipality in the regional level, and finalist in the National Level 2020-21.

atty. rolly pedrina

spiritual sector representative

Atty. Bong as people fondly call him is an ex-seminarian, chairman of Antique Cluster on Education, founder and executive director of Dihon Sa ‘Raya Inc., a Waldorf inspired initiative. He is the President of Antique Outdoors, an active organization in protecting the mountains of Antique. He was previously the President of the Rotary Club of Antique and many more. He is a member of multiple religious organizations and an active advocate for societal renewal.

charles centeno

academe sector representative

Charles Centeno started working as a vocational school administrator in Mindanao. Charles started a school vegetable gardening project that is continued until now by some student boarders while supervised by the school maintenance staff. As the Deputy Chairman, for Mega-Visayas of a Former President’s political party. He also started to work as an agricultural consultant in some farms of a national politician in Central Luzon. He is the Chairman of some NGO’s associated with the present political administration, he also started a small backyard vegetable gardening projects continues to provide vegetables to poor families during the pandemic. He is also consistently elected as a Representative of the Ateneo Schools Council (ASPAC) and currently, the Chairman of the Students Affairs and Security Committee of the Ateneo Schools Council.

elias romualdez

youth sector representative

Elias Romualdez (b. 2001) attended the Acacia Steiner-Waldorf School and grew up in a community that embodied a holistic approach to education which involved learning organic gardening and farming at a young age. Elias is currently working as a workshop facilitator for ESSA. His main area of knowledge is in Philosophy, but has a wide interest in many diciplines inlcuding Sustainable Agriculture. He is passionate about how systems thinking can be harnessed in shaping systems transformation.

– grew up in a school that teaches through organic gardening
– Has done immersions in multiple regenerative agriculture farms
– facilitates workshops that contextualize the significance of Sustainable Agriculture
– Interested in the intersection between the climate emergency and agriculture

ricardo navis jr.

luzon cluster representative

Ricardo Navis Jr. started The Makabagong Gabay Sa Kalusugan (MGSK) Health Food Products. It was a micro – research project sometime in 1989 in Nueva Ecija.  MGSK is considered as the pioneer of health food processor in the Northern Luzon and the pioneer of Vegetable noodle and other soy bean products in the Philippines The Project had been featured in the major television stations and newspapers.

Presently, he is part of ASI- Adventist layman Services and Industries in 14 Countries as VP for Livelihood Training and Development Program, Vice President of PHILEXPORT Region 02, Vice President PHILEXPORT Nueva Vizcaya, Member of Dangerous Drug Board and ESSA Council.

venancio garde

sri pilipinas representative

Venancio Tornilo Garde Jr. graduated from Nueva Ecija University of Science & Technology Gabaldon Campus and obtained his Diploma in Agricultural Technology. Once, he was a volunteer Cathecist, SK chairman, and a Community Organizer of Gabay sa Bagong Pag-asa (GBP) SAFRUDI. He was also involved in other NGOs like MASIPAG, a farmer scientist partnership in Sustainable Agriculture. He is also part of PRRM or the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, PABINHI (Pilipinas Pambansang Inisyatibo ng Pagbibinhi sa Pilipinas and currently he is part of SRI Pilipinas as National Trainer and Consultant.

Notable Contribution in SRI Pilipinas:

A Sustainable Agriculture Consultant, Senior Technical Associate, and Project Coordinator PRRM/SRI-Pilipinas Currently the SRI Trainer in SRI-Pilipinas SRI and Sustainable Agriculture Consultant in-Relief foundation Inc. from 2015 up to present.

concula nini Cazenas

health sector representative

Nini has worked as a psychometrician, clinical psychologist, human resource management and development( HRMD), organization development(OD). She has also helped in developing systems for organic sugarcane production in order to aid neighboring farmers to move away from conventional methods. She is passionate about community organizing and mental health advocacy, and also a member of a farmer’s organization in her locality.

katherine estember

mindanao cluster representative

Kate Estember is the founder of Tuburan Institute Inc., a Waldorf-Inspired school in Davao. Kate is also a member of MISSION (Movement of Imaginals for Sustainable  Societies through Initiatives Organizing and Networking. Kate spent a year in Germany to further her studies in Waldorf Education

So in the seed we get an image of the universe

-Rudolf Steiner

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