One of the country’s premier economists will address the graduating class of 2011 during the 98th University Commencement Exercises on March 20 at the Silliman University Gym.
Mrs. Juanita Dy Amatong, an Outstanding Sillimanian in the field of Public Service, will speak to around 1,080 college graduates. Of the total number of graduates this year, as of the March 18 listing of the Office of the Registrar and Admissions, one is summa cum laude, 10, magna cum laude and 93, cum laude.
A woman who has committed almost all her professional life to government service, Mrs. Amatong is known for her no-nonsense tact. Her vast experience in the areas of taxation and finance has earned her various awards and distinctions.
Mrs. Amatong is the first woman Executive Director of The World Bank Group in Washington, DC, USA, from 1996 to 1998. The Philippine government, on the occasion of the Philippine centennial, awarded her as one of the one hundred “woman first.”
She also goes down in Philippine history as the first woman Secretary of the Department of Finance from December 18, 2003 to February 15, 2005. Another distinction that has also named her as a Living Treasure in the Philippines by the National Committee on the Centennial of the Feminist Movement of the Philippines in 2005, and as an Outstanding Negrense in Government Service by the Province of Negros Oriental in 2004.
A native of Bindoy, Negros Oriental, Mrs. Amatong has held several positions at the Department of Finance: Undersecretary, Officer-in-Charge and Acting Secretary. These, in addition to having served the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and foreign governments, such that of Myanmar, among others, as advisor, director and consultant.
Mrs. Amatong’s illustrious career started when she joined Silliman as Associate Professor in 1959, and later, from 1963 to February 1968, as Tax Economist at the IMF. She is presently Member of the Monetary Board of the Philippines.
The incumbent Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Silliman University, Mrs. Amatong graduated from Silliman for both her high school diploma and her degree of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, cum laude. She obtained her Master of Arts in Economics and Public Administration from Syracuse University in New York on a Fulbright scholarship. Mrs. Amatong holds a Certificate in Financial and Fiscal Policies and Programming from the IMF and a Certificate in Public Enterprise Management in Development Countries from the Harvard Institute of International Development.
Meanwhile, this year’s baccalaureate speaker is Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza, the General Secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.
