01/09/2026
📣SAVE THE DATE | CEMposium 2026
From the research desk to the farm gate — the ideas that move Philippine agriculture forward rarely come from one place alone. They emerge where the economist's evidence meets the entrepreneur's grit.
Capping CEM's 107th Founding Anniversary — themed "Harnessing the Digital Information Era for Economic Growth, Management Excellence, and Agricultural Resilience" — CEMposium 2026 brings together two leaders who each carry a different half of that equation: one who shapes the policies, and one who lives the practice.
🗓 September 7, 2026 | 2:00 PM
📍 REDREC Auditorium
Meet our resource persons:
🔹 Dr. Roehlano M. Briones — Dr. Briones is an alumnus of BS Economics, class of 1991, and is a Senior Research Fellow at PIDS, where he conducts policy research for the Philippine
government, with specialization in agriculture. He has authored numerous published research papers and has edited six books on the economics of agriculture and natural resources, rural development, food security, international trade, and the macroeconomy. His edited volume on irrigation policy won a National Academy of Science and Technology Outstanding Book Award of 2022. He is a Board Member of the consultancy group Brain Trust Inc (BTI), President of the Philippine Economic Society (PES), as well as a Fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) and the Social Weather Stations (SWS). He has provided technical assistance to government agencies in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and various Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bodies, while consulting for international donor agencies. In 2017, he was a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College of Economics Outstanding Alumnus for Economics and Public Policy in 2017. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the Philippine Journal of Development. Previously, he was an assistant professor at Ateneo de Manila University and UPLB. He obtained his PhD from the UP School of Economics in 2000 and did postdoctoral research at the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia.
🔹 Mr. Julius Alfie H. Barcelona — President and CEO of Harbest Agribusiness Corporation and Vice-President of the Philippine Seed Industry Association, with leadership roles spanning the ABCDF (with MAP) and the ECCP's High Value Crops committee. A psychology graduate of Ateneo de Manila with no formal training in agriculture, he built his expertise learning directly from farmers and experts across Shenzhen, Taiwan, Japan, India, Spain, and beyond — and jokes that, since much of his work now involves diagnosing plant pathogens, he became a "doctor of some kind" after all. He is driven by one conviction: that insulating farmers from economic shock is key to alleviating rural poverty, and he pursues that through solutions in seed access, water security, soil health, mechanization, and value-chain efficiency.
Research and enterprise. Policy and practice. One stage.
📝 Register here: https://forms.gle/CzHztCvsW4DpEX8j6
See you there! 💚
📣 SAVE THE DATE | CEMposium 2026
From the research desk to the farm gate — the ideas that move Philippine agriculture forward rarely come from one place alone. They emerge where the economist's evidence meets the entrepreneur's grit.
Capping CEM's 107th Founding Anniversary — themed "Harnessing the Digital Information Era for Economic Growth, Management Excellence, and Agricultural Resilience" — CEMposium 2026 brings together two leaders who each carry a different half of that equation: one who shapes the policies, and one who lives the practice.
🗓 September 7, 2026 | 2:00 PM
📍 REDREC Auditorium
Meet our resource persons:
🔹 Dr. Roehlano M. Briones — Dr. Briones is an alumnus of BS Economics, class of 1991, and is a Senior Research Fellow at PIDS, where he conducts policy research for the Philippine
government, with specialization in agriculture. He has authored numerous published research papers and has edited six books on the economics of agriculture and natural resources, rural development, food security, international trade, and the macroeconomy. His edited volume on irrigation policy won a National Academy of Science and Technology Outstanding Book Award of 2022. He is a Board Member of the consultancy group Brain Trust Inc (BTI), President of the Philippine Economic Society (PES), as well as a Fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) and the Social Weather Stations (SWS). He has provided technical assistance to government agencies in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and various Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bodies, while consulting for international donor agencies. In 2017, he was a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College of Economics Outstanding Alumnus for Economics and Public Policy in 2017. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the Philippine Journal of Development. Previously, he was an assistant professor at Ateneo de Manila University and UPLB. He obtained his PhD from the UP School of Economics in 2000 and did postdoctoral research at the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia.
🔹 Mr. Julius Alfie H. Barcelona — President and CEO of Harbest Agribusiness Corporation and Vice-President of the Philippine Seed Industry Association, with leadership roles spanning the ABCDF (with MAP) and the ECCP's High Value Crops committee. A psychology graduate of Ateneo de Manila with no formal training in agriculture, he built his expertise learning directly from farmers and experts across Shenzhen, Taiwan, Japan, India, Spain, and beyond — and jokes that, since much of his work now involves diagnosing plant pathogens, he became a "doctor of some kind" after all. He is driven by one conviction: that insulating farmers from economic shock is key to alleviating rural poverty, and he pursues that through solutions in seed access, water security, soil health, mechanization, and value-chain efficiency.
Research and enterprise. Policy and practice. One stage.
📝 Register here: https://forms.gle/CzHztCvsW4DpEX8j6
See you there! 💚
