EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Doctor of Philosophy
(PhD) Political Science, University of Hawaii, USA, 1994 (East-West
Center Doctorate Fellow/Member, Phi Beta Delta, Honor Society
for International Scholars, 1990-1994; Dissertation: ‘Loss,
Emergence and Retribalization: The Politics of Lumad Ethnicity
in Northern Mindanao)
Special Certificates,
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA -ÂLeaders
in Development Program, June 1999; Environmental Economics, May
2002
University of the
Philippines College of Law, 1988-89 (Freshman)
Master of Arts in
Public Affairs (International Relations and Political Studies
concentration), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA, 1987 (Graduated
with distinction, Awarded ‘Intern of the Year’ after a semester
at the Indochina Project, Center for International Policy,
Washington, DC, USA)
Bachelor of Arts in
Political Science, University of the Philippines-Diliman, 1986.
TR Senior High School
– Youth for Understanding Exchange Student – Indiana, USA,
1981-82 (finished high school in three years, accelerated to
senior level and graduated with high honors)
Xavier University
High School, Cagayan de Oro City, 1979-81, First Honors.
Our Lady of Lourdes
Elementary School, Phillips, Bukidnon, 1979, Valedictorian
(Awarded in 1988 as ‘Most Outstanding Alumnus’)
PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
Member, House of
Representatives, 12th Congress of the Republic of the
Philippines, Representative, First District, Province of
Bukidnon, Mindanao (elected to a second three-year term May 14,
2001)
Assistant Majority
Floor Member, Member of the Committee on Rules
Vice-Chair,
Committees on Foreign Affairs, Ecology, Science and Technology,
Civil Political and Human Rights
Deputy
Secretary-General, Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population
and Development (AFPPD), elected in Beijing, China October 2002,
the only Filipino Parliamentarian in the Executive Board
Corporate Board
Secretary, Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and
Development (PLCPD)
Principal Author,
Clean Water Act (ratified on February 2004; awaiting signature
of President of the Philippines to be promulgated as Republic
Act) and the Sustainable Forestry Act (now pending in the
Senate)
One of the main
authors of the Population and Development Act, Reproductive
Health Policy Act, and National Authority for Revenue
Administration (revenue/tax reform measure) – (all pending in
the House of Representatives)
Member, House of
Representatives, 11th Congress of the Republic of the
Philippines
Representative, First
District, Province of Bukidnon, Mindanao (elected to a first
three-year term May 11, 1998)
Vice-Chair, Committee
on Natural Resources Chair, Sub-committee on Youth Development,
Committee on Youth and Sports
Principal Author of
the landmark 1999 Clean Air Act (defended the bill in complex
plenary debates, the only freshman legislator with a national
law to his name; principal author also of five other
environmental laws on solid waste management, biodiversity,
protected areas, caves management and coastal resources and the
law on plant variety protection)
Corporate Board
Secretary, Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and
Development (PLCPD) – elected to the Executive Board of the
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD),
the only Filipino Parliamentarian, in Niigata, Japan, October
2000
Vice-President for
Mindanao, Liberal Party of the Philippines, 1999 to present
Chairman, National Institute for Policy Studies (NIPS), policy
think tank of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, 2002 to
present
Chair Emeritus,
Kabataang Liberal ng Pilipinas (KALIPI), youth wing of the
Liberal Party of the Philippines, 2001 to present
Vice-President,
International Federation of Liberal and Radical Youth (IFLRY),
elected in Berlin, Germany, 1998-2000
International Officer
of the Liberal Party to the Council of Asian Liberals and
Democrats (CALD), a network of liberal and democratic parties in
Asia, which include the Democrat Party of Thailand, the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, the Sam Rainsy Party of
Cambodia, the Singapore Democratic Party, Liberal Party of Sri
Lanka, National Union of Burma/National League for Democracy
headed by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi and the Gerakan
of Malayasia
Provincial Board
Member, Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) Minority
Floor Leader, Province of Bukidnon, Mindanao, 1995-98 (elected
as the youngest member of the Provincial Council, garnering the
highest number of votes)
Congressional Fellow
for Region 10-Northern Mindanao, Philippine Congressional
Fellowship Program, House of Representatives, 1988-89 (maiden
program of the House of Representatives, with the Asia
Foundation as partner)
ACADEMIC/RESEARCH
Assistant Professor,
Doctorate Program in Public Administration, Xavier University,
Ateneo de Cagayan, Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, 1999 to
present
Lecturer of Public
Policy (Masters in Policy Management Program) Ateneo de Manila
University School of Government, 1998 to present (handles the
module on ‘The Politics of Public Policy’) Lecturer, National
College of Public Administration and Governance, University of
the Philippines-Diliman, 1999 (occasional guest lecturer on
public affairs and policy)
Contributing Author,
‘Culture and Terrorism,’ published by the Office of the
Presidential Adviser on Culture and the Arts, Office of the
President, Manila, 2002
Co-Author (one of
three), ‘Philippine Political Culture’, published by the
Philippine Governance Forum, Ateneo de Manila School of
Government and the United Nations Development Program, 2002
Author, Essay on
‘Population, Poverty and Politics,’ published in all major
Philippine newspapers, August 2002
Contributing Writer,
‘Liberal Philippines’ Quarterly Magazine, 2003 Research
Associate, Research Institute for Mindanao Culture/Mindanao
Center for Government and Development, Xavier University-Ateneo
de Cagayan, 1995Â1997
Lecturer, School of
Graduate Studies, Bukidnon State College, Malaybalay, Bukidnon,
1995-96
Lecturer, Department
of History and Political Science/Department of Sociology, Xavier
University-Ateneo de Cagayan, 1992/1995-96
Fellow, The 21st
Century Trust, London, England, 1994 (selected Filipino
participant in the seminar ‘What is a Nation?: The Limits of
Sovereignty’ with Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen as resource
person, Klingenthal Castle, Alsace, France)
Degree
Fellow/Research Intern/Doctorate Scholar, Institute of Culture
and Communication and the Program for Education and Training,
East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 1989-1994
Author, ‘Loss,
Emergence and Retribalization: The Politics of Lumad Ethnicity
in Northern Mindanao, Philippines’ (a study on the larger
framework of state-minority relations and the politicization of
cultural/ethnic identity among the Lumads, indigenous peoples,
of the region), PhD Dissertation, University of Hawaii, USA,
1994
Fellow, International
Health Programs (IHP) -- (International Family Planning
Leadership Program -- in collaboration with the Packard
Foundation and Gates Foundation, University of California
Berkeley School of Public Health and the University of
California San Francisco School of Medicine), June 2003 Research
Intern, Indochina Project/Center for International Policy,
Washington, DC, USA, 1987 (final semester as Master of Arts in
Public Affairs-International Relations candidate, Indiana
University of Pennsylvania; awarded ‘Intern of the Year’)
Participant, The 25th United Nations Graduate Study Program
(theme: Towards a New Humanitarian Order), Palais de Nations,
Geneva, Switzerland, Summer
NON-GOVERNMENT
ORGANIZATION WORK/CIVIL SOCIETY
Project Director,
Bukidnon Integrated Network of Home Industries, Inc (BINHI) – a
rural development NGO – specifically its project on Grameen
Banking or microcredit and livelihood assistance programs for
poor women in the Bukidnon countryside called the Barangay
Unified Livelihood Investments through Grameen Banking or
BULIG (in the local language BULIG means ‘help’), 1995Â1998
(To date, the BULIG project has grown to serve over 7,000 women
in 150 barangays or village in Bukidnon,, and with a capital
loan fund of 72 million pesos, is now one of the two largest
microcredit – women-led rural development projects of its kind
in Mindanao. The Grameen -- or village, in Bengali Â
- scheme originated
in Bangladesh, with renowned economist Dr. Mohamad Yunnus as
founder. NOAcosta continues to serve as advisor to the
BINHI-BULIG project.)
Founding Member,
Kabatan-onan Kapanginabuhian Kinaiyahan Foundation (KKK) (Youth,
Livelihood and Environment) for Northern Bukidnon, 1995
Member, Philippine
Forum -- Pagbabago @ Pilipinas (Reform @ Philippines), a
movement of around a hundred young Filipino leaders below the
age of 50 from the fields of politics, business, civil society,
the arts, media and the academe
Member, Executive
Committee, National Movement for the Politics of Renewal (a
spin-off group from the Pagbabago@Pilipinas)
Member, ‘Kusog
Mindanaw’ (Strength of Mindanao) – a movement based in Davao
City comprising leaders and organizations working for peace,
Moslem-Christian understanding, human development and greater
democratic governance in Mindanao
MEDIA
Co-host, ‘Ngayon Na
Pinoy!’ (a weekly one-hour TV public affairs program), RPN-9
Manila, December 2000 to Januray 2001
Contributing
Writer/Columnist, Fil-Am Courier (weekly newsmagazine of the
Filipino Americans of Hawaii), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 1994-1997
Public Affairs Commentator and Radio Host, ‘Oplan Kasayuran Uban
Ni Dr. Neric Acosta’ (30-minute radio talk show every Sunday
morning on Radyo Natin Bukidnonand every Sunday afternoon on
DXCC Radio Mindanao Network, Cagayan de Oro City on a variety of
public policy issues, current events and public affairs), 1995
to present
AWARDS AND CITATIONS
2002 BizNews Asia
Magazine ‘100 Most Powerful and Influential Filipinos of 2002’
(ranked number 93, cited for his work and advocacies on the
environment, population, peace and development, one of the only
nine legislators in the list) ASIAWEEK feature article names
Congressman Acosta as one the young leaders of the country
representing ‘hopeful change for the Philippines’, 14 July 2001
Newsbreak Magazine
features Congressman Acosta as ‘one of the rational voices in
Congress … a leader worth watching,’ December 2002 Oscar Escobar
and the Citizens Movement Against Pollution 2002 Award for
Distinguished Contribution to Environmental Protection, in
recognition of his environmental legislation, particularly as
principal author and sponsor of the 1999 Clean Air Act
Helen Trias Rodriguez
Award for Gender Sensitivity, International Health
Programs/International Family Planning Leadership Program,
University of California-Berkeley and San Francisco, June 2003
Awardee, The
Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) –Asia-Pacific, by the Osaka,
Japan Junior Chamber, Inc (only Filipino, participated in
roundtable discussions on various regional issues, met with
parliamentarians in the Japanese Diet, had a special audience
with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Akasaka Palace),
September 1995 Winner, 1995 International Essay-Writing
Competition on ‘Internationalization and Cultural Identities’
(essay titled ‘In Search of the Global Village’), Published by
Intersect Japan and PHP Institute of America and Japan, May 1995
Speaker/Resource
Person/Delegate/Participant as legislator, public official,
academic, youth leader, and non-government organization worker,
in over 200 conferences, workshops, training-seminars,
roundtable discussions, observer missions and study tours on a
variety of issues and themes within the country and in over 45
countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa and North
America from 1995 to the present. He has served in high-level
international observer missions, such as those for the first
Indonesian National Elections in 1999 (in collaboration with the
National Democratic Institute and former US President Jimmy
Carter and the Carter Center), the East Timor Referendum in 1999
(with the United Nations Mission for East Timor), the Taiwan
National Elections in 2000, and the Cambodia National Elections
in 2003. Congressman Acosta is a frequent invited guest of
various TV and radio talk shows in Manila and in his home region
of northern Mindanao. He is a sought-after speaker in numerous
conferences and seminars in campuses, local governments and
civic assemblies, as well as in NGO symposia and international
forums on a wide range of issues: environment-population
development, public health, peace and human rights, education,
good governance, and Mindanao affairs/ Christian-Moslem
understanding.
