March 12, 2011
His Excellency
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III
Malacañang Palace
Manila
Thru: Atty. Paquito Ochoa
Executive Secretary
Dear President Aquino:
Greetings from the Mindanao!
It has come to our knowledge that our fellow Mindanaoan from the Caraga Region in the person of Mr. RAMON IKE VILLAREAL SENERES is being considered for appointment as a Commissioner in the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
Mr. SENERES was born in Compostela Valley but his family moved to Agusan del Norte when he was still a child. Thereafter, he grew up in Butuan City and went to school there until he went to Kankakee, Illinois as an American Field Service (AFS) Exchange Scholar, after which he entered the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City as a State Scholar of the Department of Education. In UP, he became a University Councilor under the progressive banner of the Sandigang Makabansa. He also became a columnist for the Philippine Collegian, his first stint in national journalism. He graduated from UP with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, major in Political Science.
It could be said that Mr. SENERES is the son of a farmer, because his father FEDERICO SENERES was among a platoon of former World War II guerrillas from Capiz Province who were given the rights to carve homestead farms in the virgin forests of the old Davao Province, as a reward for their loyal service to the motherland during that war. It is significant to note that FEDERICO was one of four brothers who all became war heroes, as chronicled in the book “Marking’s Guerrillas”.
A product of the Butuan Central Elementary School, Mr. SENERES was invited by the Dutch missionaries in the Diocese of Butuan to enroll in Father Urios High School as a Choir Scholar, apparently as a reward for his faithful service as an Altar Boy, a role that won for him the award of “Most Outstanding Acolyte”. In Father Urios, he became the Editor-in-Chief of the Gleaner, and thereafter topped the entrance examinations for the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University.
Although he was originally born as a Davaeño, Mr. SENERES embraced the language and culture of the native Butuanons, who eventually accepted him as one of their own, in words and in deeds. As faith would have it, he married Lorina Aquino, a Butuanon whose father Joaquin was formerly a Mayor of Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, and whose mother Lucena Gallardo hails from Tandag, Surigao del Sur.
In recognition of his close bonds with his adopted people, Mr. SENERES was granted the title of DATU MANBAHANDI MAKADIYAW by the Manobo-Lapaknon tribe of the Caraga Region, which in the Lumad dialect means “Good Provider of Wealth”. To this day, he remains active in working for the welfare of the Indigenous Peoples (IP) of Mindanao.
Prior to his entry into the Career Foreign Service, Mr. SENERES served as a Press Attaché of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, during the term of the late Ambassador and former Vice President Emmanuel N. Pelaez. In that capacity, Mr. SENERES faithfully defended the administration of the late President Corazon C. Aquino in the American press and the international press, as she battled with numerous coup attempts against her government. In a concurrent capacity at that time, he served as the Bureau Chief of the Philippine News Agency, and had the equivalent rank of a Consul General.
Among his other achievements, Mr. SENERES passed the Foreign Service Officer (FSO) Examinations, the Career Service Executive Examinations (CSEE) and the Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) Examinations. As a requirement for his entry into the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), he also passed the cadetship training of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).
During his stint at the DFA, Mr. SENERES became the Director of Management Information Systems (MIS) Division and was also concurrently the Director of the Communications, Radio and Telephony (CORATEL) Division. During the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in 1996, he managed the design and development of the APEC Communications and Database System (ACDS), a project that was highly acclaimed by APEC the Heads of Economies at that time to be a highly secure and reliable system.
As the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the DFA, Mr. SENERES represented the Department in the National Information Technology Council (NITC) and the Science and Technology Coordinating Council (STCC), the highest policy making bodies of the government at that time, for Information and Communications (ICT) policies and Science and Technology (S&T) related policies. He also represented the Department in the Transfer of Knowledge thru Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN) Program and the Technological Information Promotion System (TIPS).
Due to his experience in ICT policy making and project management, Mr. SENERES was appointed as the Director General of the National Computer Center (NCC) during the term of former President Joseph Estrada. In that capacity, he also served as the Managing Director of the National Computer Institute (NCI), as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Crime Information System (NCIS) and as a Commissioner of the Philippine Commission for the Year 2000 (Y2K).
As NCC Director General, Mr. SENERES played a key role in the preparation and approval of the original Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP) of the COMELEC, and was appointed twice to serve as the Chairman of the COMELEC Modernization (Computerization) Committee, first by the Commission en banc, and subsequently by the Senate of the Philippines. Needless to say, these three prior roles have prepared him to now serve as a COMELEC Commissioner.
In all the years that he has served in the government as a Career Foreign Service Officer and as a Career Civil Servant, not a single case has been filed against him. We are therefore proud to endorse him as a COMELEC Commissioner who would not only restore public trust in the Commission, but would also put in place a reliable and trustworthy computerized election system as the law requires, and as our country deserves, a system that is truly worthy for you to leave behind as one of your lasting legacies for our nation.
Very truly yours,
