After 12 solid years, Sixto Donato Cabrera Macasaet bids farewell as Executive Director of Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO). Effective July 1,2017, former Deputy Executive Director, Roselle Rasay, takes on the Acting Executive Director post. Former Membership Officer, Tanya Zaldarriaga, takes on the Acting Deputy Executive Director post; and former ACED (Advancing CSO Engagement in DRRM) Project Officer, Ivy Panganiban, takes on the Acting Membership Officer post.

Thank you, DODO!

CODE-NGO salutes Sixto Donato “Dodo” C. Macasaet for having served CODE-NGO with excellence and rigor for the past 12 years.  As the longest-serving Executive Director of CODE-NGO, he has provided stability and security in the work of the organization throughout the changing socio-economic and political environment in which the network has operated in the past years.  Under Dodo’s leadership, CODE-NGO has been acknowledged for its influential work on engaging government towards transparent, accountable and participatory governance through its advocacy campaigns and projects, particularly on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or Pork Barrel Watch and engaging the government for the Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) Program.

CODE-NGO thanks Dodo and commends him for his contributions to the network, as well as wishes him all the best as he pursues his plans to continue serving the CSO community and the country.

ROSELLE SALVANIA RASAY – Acting Executive Director

Roselle earlier served as CODE-NGO’s Deputy Executive Director from 2013 to 2017 and Program Specialist for Membership from 2006 to 2013.  As Deputy ED, she supervised the Advocacy, Membership and Knowledge Development and Management programs of the coalition. Concurrently, she also developed and supervised the coalition’s projects on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) policy advocacy and capacity building for CSOs. These portfolio of DRRM projects produced 107 trained CSO leaders on DRRM and created CSO DRR Coordination Hubs among CODE-NGO members in 10 regions of the country in the last 4 years. Learning from her involvement in the USAID-funded ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Philippine CSOs Project” and in her Australia Awards 2013 Fellowship on “Mentoring for Organizational Effectiveness”, she initiated a mentoring program on organizational development among CODE-NGO members as a component of its Capacity Building Fund Program. She is also a Volunteer Evaluator of the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) and have contributed to the assessment of several CSOs for their accreditation as donee institutions.  She currently serves as Steering Committee member for Asia of the Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA) of CIVICUS:  World Alliance for Citizen Participation, as well as Asia Representative in the Facilitation Group of the global coalition called Action for Sustainable Development (Action4SD). Before joining CODE-NGO, she worked as researcher and project officer for other non-profits such as the Galing Pilipino Movement and Anthropological Society of the Philippines.

Prior to her 13 years of service in the NGO sector, she has served for 9 years in various government agencies: in 2001 to 2004, as over-all coordinator of the ‘Computers for Public Schools Project’, the largest computer procurement and distribution project of the government at that time for the Department of Trade and Industry; in 1997-2000 as legislative staff officer for then Representative Mar Roxas at the House of Representatives; in 1994 as Research Assistant for the Education Research Program of the College of Education – University of the Philippines Diliman and in 1993 as Philosophy Instructor at the Philippine Military Academy. She has completed her academic units in Master in Public Administration in the National College of Public Administration and Governance of the University of the Philippines-Diliman and has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science (double major in Economics and Philosophy) at the University of the Philippines College – Baguio City.

TANYA FAYE ALMALBIS ZALDARRIAGA – Acting Deputy Executive Director

Tanya joined CODE-NGO in 2011 to assist in the crafting of its 5-year strategic plan and oversee its incubation period. She took on the position of Program Officer for Membership starting in 2013.  As Program Officer, she manages the capacity-building interventions for organizational development and internal reforms for good governance of member CSO networks. Her responsibilities included administration of capacity-building grants for members, creating and cultivating linkages for the membership program and project development for the membership unit.

Tanya brings with her 14 years of development NGO work experience starting as Program Manager of The Zuellig Foundation, a health policy think-tank, from 2003 to 2007; as Senior Resource Deployment Associate of Children’s Hour Philippines, in-charge of project selection and grants monitoring and evaluation, from 2008 to 2010; and as Program Officer of GT-Metro Foundation, overseeing inception of the organization, from 2010 to 2011 before joining CODE-NGO. She took up Agricultural Chemistry at the University of the Philippines Los Banos in 1993 and started her career as a researcher for the national drug policy unit of the Department of Health in 1999. Tanya was born and raised in the provinces of Negros Occidental and Capiz in Western Visayas, Philippines.

IVY MARIAN PEJI PANGANIBAN – Acting Membership Officer

Ivy joined CODE-NGO in 2014 as the Project Officer for the Advancing CSO Engagement in DRRM-CCA (ACED) Project. During this time she worked with the member networks in establishing the CSO DRRM Coordination Hubs in 10 regions, facilitating the conduct of Capacity Building on DRRM-CCA for core hub members and building partnership and linkages with other development and humanitarian organizations.

She previously worked as Research Assistant for Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in the Rural Areas (PHILDHRRA). In this capacity, she was involved in various researches on local governance and asset reform such as Mid-Term PDP Assessment on Agriculture, CSO Mapping for the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and CSO Land Reform Monitoring-Philippines. Her work experience includes freelance consultancies on data analysis, NSTP Facilitator for Ateneo de Manila University, Project Assistant for UP School of Economics Alumni Association, and Community Organizer for BayaniJuan sa Calauan.

She graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Community Development.