Aside from being an outstanding folklore researche

Aside from being an outstanding folklore researcher, Dr. Patrick Azanza is also one of the very first and the very few academic leaders in the field of social education and cultural development who advocate the use of e-learning technology to complement the traditional mode of teaching social, arts, culture, and other related subjects. As early as 2003, he founded and organized the Philippine National e-Learning Association which provides a venue for presentation of e-learning researches and share information among member institutions, faculty, and students on the latest development in e-learning. Dr. Azanza who holds a PhD from UP and a post-doctoral diploma from the Harvard University dared to risk his academic reputation as he pushed for the use of e-learning to complement traditional teaching methods in the Philippine educational system. He conducted researches that are significant to the subject and proved that e-learning can work especially in promoting social and cultural education as well as other technical courses. The commitment of Dr. Azanza in promoting positive social and cultural values that support the preservation of our country’s folklore and traditions which are on the verge of being permanently lost, genuinely promotes the interest of the general public and sets positive directions to our youths. The present generation cannot move forward without having a good sense of our cultural history which is partly enshrined in the folklore and traditions Dr. Azanza sought to keep alive as he deemed it vital to cultural development and nation-building.

Part 2 Academic Leadership in Social Education and Cultural Development

In recognition of his outstanding achievements and extra-ordinary commitment to the service of humanity, Dr. Azanza has been honored as “Distinguished UP Alumnus for Social Service” (1996); was conferred by President Fidel V. Ramos the “Lingkod Bayan Award” (1996), the highest award given to civil servants by the Office of the President; was listed in the Marquis “Who’s Who in the World” for his outstanding achievements in the field of Education, (2001); “Parangal ng Bayan Award” (2002); the prestigious “Huwarang Ama Award in the field of Education” (2006); and “The Most Outstanding Folklore Researcher” (2008) conferred by the Philippine Folklore Society for preserving, protecting and promoting the 400-year old endangered oral folklore, “Alamat ng Mandaluyong”. Last September 7, 2008, the Philippine Jaycees also recognized Dr. Azanza as “Most Outstanding Metro Manila Chapter President” for his excellent civic leadership and commitment to service to humanity.

Dr. Azanza is recognized today as one of the country’s leading educators in the field of social education and cultural development. He utilizes his expertise in sociology to promote social education as well as to protect, preserve and promote our country’s oral folklore and cultural traditions. Dr. Azanza who also teaches at the UP College of Education was acknowledged by Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) President Nestor O. Jardin for his foremost folklore research that led to the preservation of the oral folklore “Alamat ng Mandaluyong” (The Legend of Mandaluyong), which for many years had been in serious threat of becoming permanently lost. CCP President Jardin described the work of Dr. Azanza as a positive response to the 1989 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Resolution in Paris, France which called upon member states to “safeguard and protect folklore traditions, particularly oral traditions that are extremely fragile and at risk of extinction”. The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) considers the “Alamat ng Mandaluyong” as a very important oral tradition that belongs to our country’s cultural heritage.

Part 1 Academic Leadership in Social Education and Cultural Development

Dr. Azanza has been an educator for more than twenty (20) years. He spent most of his professional life as a social education teacher and researcher focusing on social and cultural studies. He started teaching social science and sociology subjects in 1991 at the Department of Sociology in UP Diliman; and human resources development and industrial relations subjects at the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP-SOLAIR). From there, he went on to become a well-published academic leader and researcher. Not so many social education teachers of his age could accomplish what Dr. Azanza has done in his field of expertise. At 39 years old, he has already written seven (7) books and more than thirty (30) academic papers, articles and researches.

His commitment to social and cultural development studies has brought him to folklore research, a field only very few social scientists would find serious interest because of the low economic returns despite its being physically tiring, time consuming, financially draining, and most of the time frustrating due to the difficulty in finding source materials and key informants even after spending so much effort in the field, libraries and museum. In fact, the specific field of interest of Dr. Azanza which is oral folklore research is much more challenging as it requires highly specialized research and documentation capabilities.

As the term denotes, oral folklore is not documented and is extremely dependent on the recollection of the key resource persons who orally transmit it across generations. This is the reason why in 1989, during the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) General Conference in Paris, France, a resolution was adopted “to safeguard and protect folklore, particularly oral traditions that are extremely fragile and at risk of getting lost”. This resulted in the Hudhud chants of the Ifugaos and the Darangen epic of the Maranaos being declared by the UNESCO as masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. UNESCO, however, emphasized that there are many more oral folklore that need to be saved and protected.

Dr. Azanza also a served as a member of the Board of Directors of the British Alumni Association. Dr. Azanza did research works at the Cordillera Studies Center and wrote for the “Ti Similla” while he was a faculty member at UP Baguio in 1992. He was also involved in 1993 as a sociologist and field Researcher for a study on the indigenous Dumagat people in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija under the Environmental Research Division, Manila Observatory, Ateneo de Manila University. In 1997, he was appointed Research Fellow at the UP Law Center and wrote the Japanese Influences at Work: Perspective from Selected Filipino Workers, in the book Image and Reality: Philippine-Japan Relations Towards the 21^st Century, published by the UP Law Center and funded by the Japan Foundation.

In 2003, with the advent of e-learning, Dr. Azanza formed the Philippine National e-Learning Association (PNEA) as part of his advocacy for the use of e-learning to complement the traditional mode of teaching social education, arts, culture and other related subjects. Through the years, Dr. Azanza has distinguished himself as a respected academic leader in the field of social education and cultural development. His views matter whenever there are relevant issues that arise within his field of expertise. Thus, Dr. Azanza is regularly invited as a resource person whenever there are public/TV forum/discussions on matters relating to social and cultural development.

This was the challenge that Dr. Azanza took on and led him to his research on the “Alamat ng Mandaluyong”, a more than 400-year old oral folklore that was in great danger of extinction and has already branched out to three (3) seemingly conflicting versions because of human frailty and the tendency to have selective memory on the part of some elders who could recall the legend. Dr. Azanza is credited by the Philippine Folklore Society (PFS), the foremost national organization of folklore scholars, professors and researchers since 1958, for this outstanding folklore research which preserved and protected the more than 400-year old oral folklore “Alamat ng Mandaluyong” which was already on the verge of extinction. He was also hailed by the local officials of the City of Mandaluyong for preserving, protecting and promoting the endangered oral folklore.

As an academic administrator, Dr. Azanza has phenomenally climbed up the academic ladder and was designated Director of the UP System Human Resource Development Office (1994); Acting Vice Chancellor for Administration of UP Diliman (1995); College Secretary of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (1996); Vice President of the AMA Group of Companies (1997); Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of the AMA University (2000); Chief Operations Officer of AMA University. Upon his early retirement from AMA University, he served as an International Consultant for an Asian Development Bank (ADB) project in Central Asia. Upon his return to the country, he worked as a CEO of a BPO and Call Center Company, and eventually put up Cosmotec Contact Centre, his own call center company located in EDSA Cubao, Quezon City as well as a technical school, now known as the Cosmotec College.

Dr. Patrick Azanza, Founder of Cosmotec Group of Companies Dr. Patrick T. Azanza was born to a modest family of educators and was raised in the island-province of Catanduanes along with nine brothers and sisters. He studied hard as a scholar at the premiere learning institutions of UP and Harvard University, and distinguished himself as one of the country’s leading educators and academic leaders. Consistent Scholar and Active Student Leader at UP While pursuing AB Sociology at UP Los Banos, Dr. Azanza was elected Chairman of the UP Los Banos Student Council in 1986 due to his excellent and charismatic leadership qualities. He was well-respected by his peers because of his nationalist principles that within the same year, he was also elected Chairman of the entire UP System’s Alliance of All UP Student Councils (otherwise known as KASAMA SA UP). Dr. Azanza was an active student leader and street parliamentarian during his college years. But unlike many other student leaders during his time, he maintained a good academic standing and finished his course under the UP Presidential scholarship grant. He was one of the very few recipients of a straight UP Presidential Scholarship Grant for his bachelor’s (Sociology), master’s (Sociology), and doctoral (Education) degrees. He holds a post-doctoral diploma from the Harvard University, and took up a post-graduate certificate course in Human Resource Management at the University of California Riverside Campus, and Human Capital Management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). He also very recently completed Juris Doctor (JD) at the UP College of Law. The academic and research expertise of Dr. Azanza is, thus, a product of his commitment to lifelong learning and academic excellence.