Guest Speakers
Senator Loren Legarda
SENATOR LOREN LEGARDA is a four-term Senator who has authored and sponsored many pieces of legislation aimed at improving the lives of Filipinos and promoting inclusive, sustainable, and resilient development. She was the Philippine Senate’s first female Majority Leader and also held the position of Senate President Pro Tempore during the 1st and 2nd Regular Session of the 19th Congress.
Legarda is an awardee of the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) and The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS). For her leadership and untiring support for art and culture, she was conferred the Dangal ng Haraya – Patron of Arts and Culture Award by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). She is the visionary and principal advocate for the Philippines’ return to the Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest and most prestigious contemporary art platform, after a 51-year hiatus. She is also the prime mover to the country’s participation as the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, the world’s largest book trade fair. Through her efforts to strengthen bilateral relations with other countries, Legarda was bestowed with the title of Knight in the French National Order of the Legion of Honor, Knight in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the Commendatore to the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, and the Award of Distinction by the European Union.
Ramon G. Guillermo, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR RAMON GUILLERMO is a pioneer in the theory and practice of digital humanities and translation studies in the Philippines. He received his PhD in Southeast Asian Studies (Austronesistik) from the University of Hamburg, Germany in 2005. His books include Pook at Paninindigan: Kritika ng Pantayong Pananaw (2009), Translation and Revolution: A Study of Jose Rizal’s Guillermo Tell (2009), 3 Baybayin Studies (2017), as well as the prize-winning novel Ang Makina ni Mang Turing (2013). He first expounded on his concept of Philippine Studies as an autonomous academic communication community in the essay, “Sariling atin: Ang nagsasariling komunidad na pangkomunikasyon sa disiplinang Araling Pilipino” (2016). His work has been translated into Bahasa Indonesia, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.
He currently serves as the director of the UP Center for International Studies (UPCIS). He is an affiliate with the UP Tri-College PhD Philippine Studies Program and the UP Intelligent Systems Center (UPISC) as well as an associate at the UP Institute of Creative Writing (UPICW). He previously taught for many years at the UP Diliman Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature. His current research projects are on the textual transmission, dissemination, reception, and translation of ideas and ideologies in the Philippines and Southeast Asia using techniques and approaches from translation studies and digital humanities. He has served as a Faculty Regent of the University of the Philippines and is one of the initiators of the Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom.
Reynaldo C. Ileto, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR REYNALDO C. ILETO is a leading historian of the Philippine Revolution, the first anti-colonial and pro-independence movement in Southeast Asia. He received his PhD in Southeast Asian History from Cornell University in 1975. His major works include Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910 (1979, 2011); Magindanao, 1860-1888: The Career of Datu Uto of Buayan (1971, 2007); Filipinos and their Revolution: Event, Discourse, and Historiography (1998); and Knowledge and Pacification: On the U.S. Conquest and the Writing of Philippine History (2017).
An Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, Prof. Ileto has held multiple positions across universities in the Asia-Pacific region. He was Reader in Asian Studies at the ANU, Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines, and Research Scholar at both Kyoto University and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He was Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore until 2012 and Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University until 2017. Prof. Ileto’s trailblazing contributions on Philippine historiography have earned him the Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies (1985), Masayoshi Ohira Prize (1986), Philippine National Book Award (1999), Fukuoka Asian Culture Academic Laureate (2003), and Grant Goodman Prize in Philippine History (2011).