FROM
AGRICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS
TO DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNICATION:
A
PARTICIPANT-OBSERVER ACCOUNT
By
Felix Librero,
PhD
Professor
Emeritus, UPOU
I joined DAIC as
a major student in 1965 when I enrolled in my first course, AgCom 10. Then I was employed as DAIC student assistant,
collating mimeographed farm news releases, in 1966. I 1967, I was DZLB student assistant, serving
as student radio announcer and news writer, and then as Station Supervisor in
June 1968, after I graduated from UPCA.
DZLB’s history
deserves a separate treatment, but for this account it must be put in
context. In 1962, Radio DZLB was
conceptualized as an experimental rural broadcasting station for the UP College
of Agriculture with the help of Visiting Professor William Ward and Bob
Rounsavell, both from Cornell University.
To establish the radio station, UPCA was given a grant of US$2,700 from
the Agricultural Development Council, Inc., which was then being funded by the
Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. DZLB
went on its maiden broadcast on 2 August 1964, and the first voice heard over
DZLB was that of Thor Orig, an undergraduate student of agricultural
communications who was then active in stage plays and other cultural
presentations of student fraternities.
At that time, Thor Orig was Student Assistant working with DZLB. He had a very good radio voice.
Some of the UPCA
graduates who worked full-time with DZLB from 1964 onwards included Filipino
pioneers in rural educational broadcasting like Romeo Gecolea, Ponciano de la
:Paz, Sabina Fajardo, and Maximo Pabale (from 1964 to 1966), Milagros Tetangco, Alicia Agudo, Antonio
Frio, and Pedro Bueno (from 1967-1968), and myself from 1968 onwards.
How I started
working full-time at DZLB was a strange story by itself. When I finished my thesis in the Summer of
1968, DZLB’s Station Supervisor, Emma Henry, was planning to resign to pursue
her interest in police work. I waited
for her to resign so I could apply for the vacated position. When she finally resigned in April that year,
the department couldn’t immediately hire her replacement because Emma had taken
all her leave credits in cash, which meant the vacant position would be frozen
until middle of June 1968. So I decided
to work with DZLB on full time basis without compensation from April to June
1968, and I got hired toward end of that year.
As I had been student announcer of DZLB earlier, I didn’t require much
time to settle down with the chores at DZLB, and I became the one responsible
for two regular programs in terms of researching, writing, and announcing said
programs. I wrote and delivered the
daily news program and hosted a regular thirty-minute program titled
Samut-Samot, Inc., which was a music-and-information program. Then, of course, I had to coordinate and assist
in the production and broadcast of other radio programs which were being aired
in collaboration with other units of the College of Agriculture. For three months, I was doing pretty much
standard work in DZLB, although I was also dabbling as some kind of general
assistant in the other activities of the Department such as in the production
and circulation of the Radio Farm News, a farm and home news service provided
by the department to media outlets like radio stations and newspapers in the
country.
At the department
level, while the department was still operating from the basement of the old
library building it had began producing a news service called the Radio Farm
News which was distributed to media outlets all over the Philippines. When the department participated in the then
special project of the UPCA called Rice Information Cooperative Effort (RICE)
in 1965, it co-published with IRRI and the Department of Agriculture the Rice
Production Manual, which became the “bible” of farm technicians of the
Philippine agricultural extension service.
On October 30,
1968, at the Department level, the term “Information” in the original name of
the department, Department of Agricultural Information and Communication
(DAIC), was “edited” out and it became Department of Agricultural
Communications (DAC). The term
“information” was deemed superfluous (Cadiz, 1979). From the cramped basement of the old library
building, where most of the initial work in agricultural communications were
undertaken by the Los Baños-based pioneers in agricultural journalism,
audiovisual communication, and extension publications, DAC transferred (on November 3, 1969) to its
new building (where it still stays today) near the main gate, across from the
main UPLB Administration Building. DAC
shared the building with the Farm and Home Development Office (FHDO), then the
extension arm of the UPCA. At the time
that DAC transferred to its new building, Dr. Nora Quebral was the department
chair (1968-1970). Then Dr. Juan F.
Jamias became department chair in 1970-1971, and Dr. Thomas G. Flores, again,
in 1971-1972 until he left for the University of Wisconsin to serve as Visiting
Professor. During that time, there were
only the three of them that had PhDs and practically took turns in heading the
department, although Ely Gomez had returned in 1969 from Michigan State
University with a PhD in educational media.
Dr. Quebral
again became department chair from 1972-1976, during which time many changes in
the department occurred. For one, DAC
reorganized into three sections, namely: audio-visual communication section,
broadcast communication section, and print communication section.
Earlier on in
1969, Glenn Paje came in as student assistant, and the following year Lolita
Vega joined the station (from the Department of Entomology where she was
Research Assistant) first as research assistant and later as program host,
taking over the chores of Alysh Arejola when she left DZLB. Many people joined DZLB for some time when
they were starting their professional lives or in the process of enriching
their professional lives. Those who did
creative work at DZLB included Felimon Barral, Lynn Malilin, Paul Manalo,
Epitacia Calatrava, Milagros Sandoval, Noel Cartas, and Myra Beltran, who all
joined DZLB during the 1970-1974 period.
On December
9-10, 1971, a symposium with the theme “In Search of Breakthroughs in
Agricultural Development” was held at UPLB in honor of Dr. Dioscoro L. Umali,
who was then the Deputy Director-General for the Far East of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization. In that
symposium, Nora Quebral presented her seminal paper titled “Development
communication in the agricultural context” wherein she introduced to the public
for the first time the term “development communication” (Quebral 1971; 1988). Quebral made it clear in that paper that to
her development communication was to be treated as science, so all the tasks
associated with communicating development-oriented issues were based on
rigorous scientific inquiry. This was a
strong argument for undertaking rigorous research in the field of communication
even if it was, at that time, limited to agricultural and rural development
efforts. It would be safe to assume that
Quebral’s enunciation of development communication may have greatly contributed
to the intellectual transformation of DAC staffers from a bridled focus on rural and
agricultural development efforts to a wider development horizon that “makes
possible greater social equality and the larger fulfillment of the human
potential.”
It should be
borne in mind, however, that when Quebral introduced development communication,
initially as a marriage between the twin concepts of development and
communication, she did it at a time when the concept of development was pervasive
in both the developed and developing world.
Dudley Seers’ article titled “The Meaning of Development” which became
one of the “bibles” of graduate students at UPLB and the staff of DAC, was
published in 1969. Around that time,
too, the Club of Rome published its book titled “The Limits to Growth.” There was also Gunnar Myrdal’s “Asian Drama”
that came off the press in the middle-sixties.
During the second half of the sixties, UPCA was host to visiting
professors from Cornell University under the UP-Cornell Program, who became
active, together with UPCA professors, in promoting the concept of national
development, particularly through socio-economic development programs. It was under this academic ambiance at Los
Baños that Quebral introduced the concept of development communication, which
fitted perfectly in the efforts of government, the academe, and international
aid agencies. It was, so to speak, an
idea that has come of age. From the
point of view of this writer, that was perfect timing for a perfect idea.
In 1972, the
Radio Farm News (RFN) was reconceptualized and split into two services:
Development News Service (DNS), and the Development News Digest (DND). The DNS continued to carry crisp news items
about research results and other new modern farming developments from UPCA,
while the DND, which began circulating in April 1973, carried feature articles
about how research results were influencing the farming practices in the
Philippine country sides. These news
services, including the Rice Production Manual, continued to be published by
the department, but such function was transferred in 1980 to the Philippine
Council for Agricultural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).
In the same year,
1972, the Master of Science (agricultural communications) program, which was
first offered in 1965, was upgraded to MS (development communication). With this program, a number of graduate
students began flocking to Los Baños.
The first batch of graduate students in development communication who were
from outside of UPCA came in as graduate assistants with teaching functions
starting in 1973 included: Patricia Sto. Tomas, Esther Manigque, Rosita
Valencia, Madeline Mag-uyon, and Antonio Moran.
Having completed their master’s degrees, they ultimately left the
department for their respective professional calling (in 1976 Sto. Tomas
transferred to the Department of Labor to join the staff of then Secretary Blas
Ople; Manigque withdrew in 1978 from the academe to care for her ailing mother
and she ultimately in the early 80’s succumb to cancer; Valencia went for her
PhD in 1979 and ultimately migrated to the US; Moran joined the UP Mindanao in
the mid-80s; and only Mag-uyon (now Suva) has stayed with the department (now
College) until today.
Development
Journalism and SANDIWA
Agricultural
journalism was a popular field of study in the Land Grant colleges of the US in
the 60s. It came as no surprise that
agricultural journalism was to be one of the focuses of extension education and
agricultural communication in Los Baños.
In fact, it was agricultural reporting and feature writing that became
the first skills undergraduate students in agricultural communications learned
with some level of mastery, both for radio and the newspapers. Agricultural journalism was part of print
communication which was one of the three major areas in agricultural
communications, the two others being community broadcasting and audiovisual
communication. Naturally, with the introduction
of development communication in the early 70s as the main area of study,
agricultural journalism became development journalism. During that time, too, the field of
development journalism was also a new area of professional practice being
espoused by the Press Foundation of Asia through its news service, DEPthnews,
highlighting the areas of development, economics, and population as the new
beats in news reporting. DEPthnews was
also part of the international network of news services focusing on
developmental issues that was being sponsored by UNESCO at that time, which
included the Tanjug News Service of Yugoslavia, the Bernama News Service of
Malaysia, among others.
A few years
earlier in 1967, Elinora Moral, already with a Master of Arts degree in
journalism, was recruited Instructor, and Carmencita Navarro, English major graduate from UP, Diliman was
recruited as editor. The following year,
Navarro transferred to the International Rice Research Institute. Moral became active in agricultural
journalism and then development journalism.
When the Department of Agricultural Communications transferred to its
new building in 1970, the young faculty of the department began conceptualizing
a community newspaper that could demonstrate the principles and skills being
learned by development journalism students,
working seriously to be able to demonstrate their expertise in the media
triumvirate of the newspaper, radio, and audiovisual media.
About October of
1971, five faculty and staff (comprised of Elinora Moral, Ponciano dela Paz,
Pedro Bueno, Antonio Frio, and Felix Librero) of agricultural journalism and
farm broadcasting brainstormed on the possibility of starting a weekly
community newspaper as an outlet for farm information in tandem with DZLB. Picking up from the philosophical orientation
of development communication, the group decided
to coin the name Sandiwa, from the Tagalog terms isang diwa (one soul). Moral became the Editor and I became an
active columnist, writing the print version of my Balitang Pambukid (Farm News) radio program. Sandiwa came out with its maiden
issue in January 1972. Through the
efforts of the young faculty of development communication, SANDIWA’s readership
spread to the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Cavite, and Rizal.
The
following year 1973, the PhD in
development communication program was approved by the UP Board of Regents. Then, on March 11, 1974, the Bachelor of
Science in Development Communication (BSDC) was also approved, thereby
completing the three-tiered formal education in development communication in
Los Baños, the first such set of programs in development communication
worldwide (Cadiz, 1979; Quebral, 1988).
Finally, the inevitable had to follow.
On March 28, 1974, UP’s Board of Regents approved the renaming of DAC to
Department of Development Communication (DDC).
Cadiz (1979), reviewing the department’s history, said, “The
transformation signified the culmination of the department’s almost 20 years of
experience in extension-communication, an experience that brought about a widened
understanding of the meaning of development and the crucial role of
communication in advancing development” (p. 84). For a young professional who was just
introduced to the concept of social development in a Third World setting, the
transformations of the 70s were of profound significance.
When Martial Law
was declared on September 21, 1972, Radio DZLB voluntarily went off the air. As Radio Station Supervisor, I had to
personally supervise the silencing of the radio station to avoid physical
closure by the Philippine Constabulary.
I personally had to demagnetize all our canned programs on that day
(Sunday) and told the technician not to turn on the transmitter anymore. Our Station Manager, then, was Ponciano de la
Paz, and he was stranded in Marikina, Rizal.
The only radio stations allowed to operate then were the stations
belonging to the government network.
However, we continued to publish Sandiwa, and, in the Summer of 1973,
a huge regional development journalism conference was held in Los Baños in
collaboration with the Region IV Office of the Ministry of Public
Information. During that conference, the
MPI-Region IV made an offer that the Department of Development Communication
could not refuse, to take over the publication of Sandiwa. As usual, we of Sandiwa were operating as
academics with only the good intensions
of development journalism as an academic field of study in mind, so the
Department turned over publication of Sandiwa at the start of 1974. We of Sandiwa had our own doubts about
this transaction, but we probably silently agreed that if we wanted Sandiwa
to continue publishing then it must have some sure funding, which was something
UPCA could not provide. Unfortunately,
it folded up after only two quarterly issues.
In each of those two issues, it was clear that about 70% of content was
in direct support of the Martial Law government but was passed as developmental
issues, while about 30% was focused on real developmental issues such as those
about population, economic development in the country sides, and health and
nutrition.
Sandiwa was
a very good concept, but it came out when the Martial Law regime was scouting
for an appropriate media project to help legitimize its existence. Development journalism, through Sandiwa,
was a good promotional strategy for the Martial Law government and became a
powerful argument for the critics of development communication who had been
claiming that devcom was nothing but government propaganda of the Martial Law
government of the Philippines.
Development As
Focus for Communication Studies
In the past,
informal categorization of areas of specialization in development communication
was expressed in terms of the research one undertook for a thesis. In the absence of a better parameter, this
may be used as a yardstick to provide a general idea of where graduates of
development communication believed they had critical advantage over their peers
in mainstream communication.
From 1963 to
1974, the graduates were agricultural communications major and their respective
theses would show that they studied mostly the use of extension media and their
variations. From 1975 onwards, however,
when the BSDC was already offered and the three major areas of community
broadcasting, development journalism, and audiovisual communication, the nature
of undergraduate theses being undertaken by students started to spread out to
concerns not purely agricultural, such as community nutrition, sanitation,
family planning, deforestation, and the like (Maslog, 1988). As the graduate program in development
communication strengthened, so did efforts in the analysis of the role of
communication in the development process.
Development models became popular frameworks for the in-depth study and
analysis of the role of communication in the planning and implementation of
development programs in the country.
Communication as
Art/Science: The Debate
Development
communication was clearly defined by Quebral (1971) as the “art and science of
human communication applied to the speedy transformation of a country and the
masses of its people from poverty to a dynamic state of economic growth that
makes possible greater social equality and the larger fulfillment of the human
potential.” This formal definition has
been taken both literally and figuratively by experts in the twin areas of
development and communication, sometimes in combination with one another, and
frequently independently.
The discussion
as to whether Devcom was art or science, even if it was clearly enunciated in
the Quebral definition, did not stop. The
debate even became more lively with the administrative developments on the Los
Baños campus in the early 1970s when Proclamation No. 53 was issued by
Malacañng on March 5, 1972 creating the University of the Philippines System,
with UPCA becoming the first autonomous campus of the UP System. UPCA became known as the University of the
Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
Immediately, the then UPCA was reorganized and many of its departments
were elevated into colleges. One of
these was the Department of Humanities, which became the College of Arts and
Sciences.
Immediately
after the reorganization of the UPCA to the UPLB, the then Department of
Agricultural Communications, which was still part of the College of Agriculture,
submitted its curricular proposal for a four-year BSDC, which was approved in
March the following year. It is
difficult to pin down on individuals certain events that transpired during the
interim period because there are no existing documentary evidences. Suffice it to say, however, that there was a
proposal for an AB in Devcom (privately believed by many to have been
formulated by two faculty members of the Department of Agricultural
Communications) which was being considered by the newly set-up Department of
Humanities in the new CAS.
It was not as if
there was completely no basis for the idea of offering an AB program in
development communication. It should be
noted that at UPCA, student organizations (fraternities and sororities) were very
active promoters of cultural life through regular and frequent theatrical
productions of both Shakespearian and Filipino stage plays. In other words, many students already
studying at UPCA were arts-oriented, and their number was steadily increasing. Private conversations with those believed to
be proponents of the AB in development
communication proposal would point out to this trend as one of the more
important bases for proposing to offer an arts-oriented development
communication program in Los Baños.
The idea of an
AB in Development Communication curriculum, however, was earlier vetoed by the
DAC with the belief that devcom should remain as science-oriented curriculum in
communication based on the fact that it (devcom) was being developed as a
social science rather than plainly arts program. This generated lengthy and passionate
debates.
From a
dispassionate point of view, however, we have raised the issue that devcom,
whether or not it was art or science, was beside the point. The more significant point that was being
offered for discussion was the issue of why the need for two separate
communication curricula in a small campus like UPLB which was known to be a
campus for life sciences rather than social sciences or the arts. This issue reached the discussions in the
Social Science Commission created by then UPLB Chancellor Emil Javier to
discuss the role of social science in the life of the UPLB as an academic
institution. The Commission did not deal
squarely with the issue of the two communication curricula at UPLB, but it
declared that the social sciences in Los Baños were treated as second class
citizen.
The original
proposal of an AB in Devcom was renamed AB Communication Arts, which became a
banner program of the Department of Humanities in the new CAS. The AB Comarts initially had two major areas:
public speaking and expository writing. In the mid-1970s, due to persistent requests
from ComArts students, the Department of Development Communication decided to
permit Comarts students to cross-enroll in the first four basic courses in
devcom: introduction to development communication, fundamentals of development
journalism, fundamentals of community broadcasting, and fundamentals of
educational communication. This raised
the issue of how different these two programs were, which may be viewed from
two points: vertical difference in terms of depth, and horizontal difference in
terms of breadth. Development
communication runs deep in its commitment to development. Here is what Quebral (1988) said in her
foreword of her book in 1988:
Development
communication has gone by some other tag in the past and may be called
differently in the future. Its present
name could go out of fashion after a while.
Not likely to disappear, though, is the idea that underlies it: that the
art of communication, infused by social science principles, can be consciously
directed towards improving people’s lives.
This is the essence of development communication, regardless of how it
is labeled or what else may be imputed to it.
While there may
have been some sort of moratorium in the debates as to whether or not devcom
was art or science from the late 80s to the present, one still feels the silent
disagreements as well as commonality in concern among both the faculty and
students of these two curricular programs.
Some of the faculty members of the Comarts Program were graduates of
devcom in both the bachelor’s and master’s degree levels. Some have even pursued their PhDs in devcom. There is still wisdom in reviewing
dispassionately the relationship between the two curricular programs.
The Growth Years
of Devcom at Los Banos
The 1970s and
the 1980s could easily be considered the growth years of devcom in Los Baños. One must recall that Quebral introduced the
term “development communication” for the first time in December 1971. In a succession of events after that, the
then department of Agricultural Communications was renamed Department of
Development Communication in 1973, then the Bachelor of Science in Development
Communication and the existing MS in agricultural communications was renamed MS
in development communication both in 1974.
The PhD in development communication was first offered in 1977 (Librero,
1991).
The BSDC was
designed to provide the students the opportunity to (BSDC Brochure as cited by
Librero, 1991):
1. acquire
a theoretical base in the sciences and applied arts that underlie the study of
human communication;
2. learn
practical skills in mediated and interpersonal communication;
3. gain
a basic grasp of the issues and problems of development in general and of the
subject of development area in particular; and
4. apply
the concepts, principles and skills of communication to the solution of
problems in a developing society.
On the other
hand, the MS in development communication program “offers the students advanced
training in the principles and practice of purposive communication for
development,” while the PhD program “explores in depth and breadth the
synergistic relationship between communication and development” (MS in Development Communication and PhD in
Development Communication brochures, respectively, as cited by Librero, 1991).
From 1982-1986, the
then DDC implemented the first and so far only national R&D program in
development communication titled A National Development Communication Research
and Research-Based Information Utilization Program of the Philippines with
funding from the Philippine Council of Agricultural Resources Research and
Development (PCARRD) of which Dr. Felix Librero was Program Leader. Participants in this national program were
UPLB, Central Luzon State University (CLSU), Central Mindanao University (CMU),
and the Visayas State College of Agriculture (ViSCA), now Leyte State
University (LSU). Under this program,
the department also initiated and published a low-cost journal called the
Devcom Quarterly, which published articles, research reports, and essays from
local and foreign authors. Without
institutional funding after 1986, however, Devcom Quarterly was ultimately
turned over to the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE) to
become its official journal following the recommendations in 1987 of a review
committee comprised of Drs. Quebral. Jamias, and Crispin Maslog, all senior
faculty of the then Institute of Development Communication. As following events proved later, the PACE
published only two issues (1988 and 1989) under a different publication name
before the publication went out of circulation due to lack of financial
resources.
In November
1987, the then Department of Development Communication was elevated to the
Institute of Development Communication, still under the UPLB College of
Agriculture. During that time, DDC was
acknowledged, at least informally, by the Philippine Association of
Communication Educators (PACE) as having the strongest faculty of communication
in the Philippines, one reason the UP Board of Regents approved its elevation
to the IDC. There were 23 members of the
DDC/IDC faculty with almost a 50-50 gender distribution and the following
proportion in terms of graduate training: 11 in-residence with PhD degrees, 10
in-residence and two affiliate faculty with PhD degrees (Maslog, 1988). All members of the non-teaching staff of IDC
at that time have earned at least a master’s degree.
In 1988, the IDC,
conceptualized and implemented a summer internship program for its graduating
students majoring in community broadcasting.
Through the efforts of Felix Librero, then IDC Director, the German
Foundation, Freiderick Ebert Stiftung (FES), became involved in this program by
providing IDC with partial funding for 1989 to open up the broadcasting
internship program to graduating communication students, particularly those
majoring in broadcast communication, from other educational institutions in the
Philippines.
This was a
highly successful program, judging from the number of interns (a total of 15)
from other educational institutions (10 schools) all over the Philippines that
enrolled, however the Institute could not sustain the financial resources
required after the two-year FES funding assistance was completed. The internship program was comprised of 120
hours of guided training in the entire process of community broadcasting with
the following components:
1. Review
of Concept and History of Radio Broadcasting
2. Overview
of Community Broadcasting
3. Radio
Program Conceptualization
3.1.
Generating a program idea
3.2.
Designing various radio program formats
4. Program
Production
4.1.
Script writing
4.2.
Program construction
4.3.
Actual program broadcast
5. Program
Monitoring and Evaluation
5.1.
Conducting a listenership campaign
5.2.
Formative evaluation of radio program
broadcasts
5.3.
Content adjustment based on feedback
information
5.4.
Summative evaluation of radio program
During the same
period, IDC also conceptualized and implemented another program, the
publication of the IDC Monograph Series and the IDC Faculty Papers Series, also
with initial FES funding. Again, when
the funding assistance was completed, these programs could not be sustained
given the available budget of IDC at that time.
Two issues of the IDC Monograph Series were:
Barroga,
Serlie and Ely D. Gomez. The Agenda-Setting Function of Selected
Philippine Newspapers in a rural Setting (MS Thesis of Barroga).
Casal,
Ma. Stella L.; Centurion, Diosnel, Fr.; and Gomez, Ely D. Communication
Roles of the Catholic Church (MS thesis of Casal and Centurion).
The lone issue
published under the IDC Faculty Papers Series was:
Jamias, Juan F. Understanding
Development Communication Today.
In 1999, the
Institute of Development Communication was finally elevated to its current
status, the College of Development Communication, with the following objectives
(proposal submitted to the BOR, 1998):
1. Provide
higher education for students who will pursue careers in development
communication practice, teaching and research;
2. Investigate
the interrelationships between human development and the processes and
structures of communication with emphasis on research that promotes equity,
empowerment, environmental sustainability, peace, and human rights; and
3. Undertake
training, advisory and action programs that help build up the resources and
communication capabilities of people, communities, institutions and other
participants in the development process.
It should be
noted that when the UP Board of Regents approved the elevation of the IDC to
the College of Development Communication (CDC), it had the following academic
staff complement: 23 full-time, in-residence (12 with PhDs, 9 with MA/MS, and 2
with BS degree); 9 part-time or Affiliate faculty (7 with PhDs and 2 with MA/MS
degrees). The new College also had seven
(7) individuals who were considered “under study” as potential teaching
staff. Over-all, in 1998, CDC had in its
faculty 19 with PhDs, 11 with MA/MS degrees, and 2 with Bachelor’s degrees, for
a total of 32 warm bodies that were performing teaching functions, still
considered the strongest faculty of communication in any educational
institution in the Philippines then.
Perhaps one of the most significant milestones
in the life of the CDC so far was when it was designated in 1999 by the
Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines as one of two Centers of
Excellence in Communication in the Philippines.
On top of this, the BSDC is the model curriculum in development
communication that is being copied in other tertiary educational institutions
throughout the country as well as in other developing countries (CDC Brochure, 2008). Besides, in 2008, the CDC published the
maiden issue of the Philippine Journal of Development Communication, becoming
effectively a continuation of the research publication efforts of the previous
departments starting with the Devcom Quarterly, then to the IDC Monograph and
Faculty Papers Series, and finally to the Philippine Journal of Development
Communication. Indeed, this publication
pattern might be likened to the institutional-structural development pattern of
devcom beginning with the OEP, DAIC, DAC, DDC, IDC, and finally to the
CDC. In other words, none among the
major and minor events in the history of development communication in Los Baños
could be treated independently of other events.
All are chronologically interrelated when put in appropriate context.
Enrollment Trend
in Devcom
Enrollment trend
on a decade-basis, from the 1960s to the last decade shows a continuing climb
even if there may be slight shifts within the decade. The decade’s enrollment peak was during the
school year 2003-2004, when there was the largest undergraduate enrollment of
1,685 during the decade. Graduate
enrollment peaked at 136 during the school year 2005-2006. The enrollment trend for the last decade is
shown in Table .
Table .
Aggregate enrollment, UPLB-CDC, 2001-2010*.
|
School, Year
|
Undergraduate
|
Graduate
|
Total
|
|
2000-2001
|
1,259
|
67
|
1,326
|
|
2001-2002
|
1,467
|
67
|
1,534
|
|
2002-2003
|
1,607
|
91
|
1,698
|
|
2003-2004
|
1,685
|
117
|
1,802
|
|
2004-2005
|
1,644
|
133
|
1,777
|
|
2005-2006
|
1,601
|
136
|
1,737
|
|
2006-2007
|
1,463
|
114
|
1,577
|
|
2007-2008
|
1,350
|
117
|
1,467
|
|
2008-2009
|
1,454
|
99
|
1,553
|
|
2009-2010
|
1,512
|
82
|
1,594
|
*SOURCE: UPLB-CDC
Secretary’s Office.
It may be noted
that while the enrollment figures are certainly encouraging, historically there
has not been any active student recruitment undertaken by the College of
Development Communication. Therefore,
one might surmise that promotion of devcom as a field of study has been mainly
through word of mouth.
As of 2010, the full-time
and part-time faculty complement of the CDC has the following profile:
Table .
Full-time faculty members, UPLB-CDC as of 2010 (actual head count).
|
Name
|
Academic Rank
|
Degree
|
Field
|
Institution
|
|
1.
Albia, Joclarise E.
|
Instructor 6
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
2.
Balinos, Aiza M.
|
Instructor 2
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
3.
Cabrera, Liza A.
|
Asst. Prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
4.
Canubas, Aletheia G.
|
Instructor 2
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
5.
Carpio, Lynette B.
|
Asst. Prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
6.
Castillo, Hermilea Marie C.
|
Asst. Prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
7.
Centeno, Edmund G.
|
Asst. Prof. 2
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
8.
Chico, Mark Lester D.
|
Instructor 2
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
9.
Custodio, Pamela A.
|
Asst. Prof. 5
|
PhD
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
10. Custodio,
Rhodora Ramonette D.
|
Asst. Prof. 2
|
MA
|
Masscom
|
UP Diliman
|
|
11. Dagli,
Winifredo B.
|
Instructor 3
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
12. Daya,
Rommel A.
|
Asst. prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
13. Francisco,
Rosa Pilipinas F.
|
Asst. Prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
14. Flor,
Benjamina Paula G.
|
Asst. Prof. 6
|
PhD
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
15. Jamias,
Serlie B.
|
Assoc. Prof. 4
|
PhD
|
Devcom
|
Macquarie
Univ.
|
|
16. Lim,
Aldo Gavril T.
|
Instructor 7
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
17. Maligalig,
Jon Paul F.
|
Asst. Prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
18. Montemayor,
Garry Jay S.
|
Instructor 5
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
19. Osalla,
Ma. Teresita B.
|
Asst. Prof. 3
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
20. Suva,
Madeline M.
|
Assoc. Prof. 7
|
PhD
|
Comm.
|
U. of
Wisconsin
|
|
21. Tatlongthari,
Rosario V.
|
Asst. Prof. 1
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
22. Tirol,
Ma. Stella C.
|
Assoc. Prof. 2
|
MS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
23. Torres,
Cleofe S.
|
Professor 2
|
PhD
|
Ext. Com.
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
24. Velasco,
Ma. Theresa H.
|
Professor 8
|
PhD
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
25. Villar,
Ricarda B.
|
Instructor 3
|
BS
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
Table 2. Part-time faculty members of UPLB-CDC as of
2010 (actual head count).
|
Name
|
Academic Rank
|
Highest Degree
|
Field
|
Institution
|
|
1.
Cadiz, Ma. Celeste H.
|
Assoc. Prof.
|
PhD
|
Ed. Tech.
|
Australian
National Univ.
|
|
2.
Campilan, Dindo M.
|
|
PhD
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
3.
Flor, Alexander G.
|
Professor
|
PhD
|
Devcom
|
UP Los Baños
|
|
4.
Lapitan, Julian A.
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.
Lumanta, Melinda F.
|
Professor
|
PhD
|
Comm
|
Michigan State
University
|
|
6.
Magor, Noel P.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.
Quebral, Nora C.
|
Prof. Emeritus
|
PhD
|
Comm
|
University of
Illinois
|
References
Cadiz,
Na. Celeste H. (1979). Department of
Development Communication. Philippine Agriculturist, Vol. 62,
Special Issue, pp. 78-85.
College
of Development Communication Brochure.
(2008). College, Laguna,
Philippines: UPLB College of Development Communication.
Librero,
Felix. (1991). Contemporary thinking in development
communication as expressed in the academic program: the case of Los Baños. Proceedings
of the Seminar on development Communication: Application and Prospects for the
Asia-Pacific Region, Asia-Pacific Development Communication Center,
Dhurakijpundit University, Bangkok, Thailand, December 16-18, pp. 9-14.
Maslog,
Crispin C. (1988). The Institute of Development Communication,
University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
Paper presented in the 2nd Meeting of the Research Committee,
Press Foundation of Asia Survey of Mass Communication and Journalism Education
in Asia, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, August 21-27.
Quebral,
Nora C. (1971). Development communication in the agricultural
context. Paper presented at the
Symposium on the theme :In Search of Breakthroughs in Agricultural Development”
held in honor of Dr. Dioscoro L. Umali, December 9-10.
Quebral,
Nora C. (1988). Development
Communication. College, Laguna,
Philippines: UPLB College of Agriculture.
Sison,
Obdulia F. (1979). The UPLB College of Agriculture turns
seventy: some historical milestones. Philippine Agriculturist, Vol. 62,
Special Issue, pp. 1-56.
