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Archives (1999)

It's the coco guy!

July 1999

A career move every five years is the guiding principle of Carlos Carpio. Five-year incremental moves in the last 30 years brought him to his current post as deputy administrator for R&D of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

He is also the man at the helm of the R&D network on coconut. Through his leadership, the network had finalized its RDE agenda and had also selected a high impact project.

Movement for Carlos has been spatial, too, having gone to almost every part of the archipelago as department manager of the Davao PCA research center and senior science associate of the Albay PCA research center.

He has been to several countries either to study or attend, on sponsored travel, seminars and lectures. He studied in universities in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Singapore, and visited Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Italy and Guam.

A through-and-through family man, Carlos would rather stay home and cook for his family or
watch movies at HBO during his free time. "Pero kung may extra money, I take my family out for lunch or dinner."

Family means his wife, the fonner Lourdes Equila, and his three "treasures:" a psychologist, a computer science graduate, and a computer engineer. He beamed with pride as he showed BAR Today his children's pictures on his desk.

Carlos met Lourdes at a library in UPLB. He was a working student assistant at the library; she held office at an adjacent room. "Doon kami nagkakilala." And the library soon became their "love-rary ."

A born achiever, Carlos was a consistent honor student in elementary and high school. A priest had even asked him to consider priesthood. "Nakita kasi niya na okey naman ang family namin at palagi akong honor pupil kaya inoffer niya ako."

Carlos matured early. He began earning a living in his youth, and contributed to the family income as a paid guitarist and drummer in the family-owned combo.

His retirement plans? "Pwedeng umuwi ako ng probinsiya at magkaroon ng resthouse doon o pwede ring magpagawa ako ng fishpond and then ako ang magma-manage. Pero kung may mag-offer ng opportunities like promotion or consultancy, I'll still accept."

He may even resume lawn tennis as he used to do in his provincial assignments.

Meantime, he relishes his work as a public servant. He has noble programs for the network he leads. He wants a paradigm shift to happen with regard to the attitude of the researchers toward the focus of their researches. He hopes that the researchers would consider the needs of the farmers in their undertakings. He is also working for better teamwork and networking by improving the workforce and upgrading their facilities.

Carlos has determination and perseverance. No doubt he will attain all his ambitious plans both for his work and especially for his family.

More Articles:

July 1999

»» Socio-economics agenda for the Visayas identified
»» R&D updates: T&V: its ups and downs in Africa
»» R&D updates: the "technology triangle": a research-extension-farmer linkage
»» R&D updates: mango symposium in Guimaras held
»» MS Exchange training held
»» Up close & personal: it's the coco guy!
»» Technotrends: more coco facts
»» From the RDE network: PCRDF selects best coconut researches

[More 1999 Articles]