Editors’ Note: Kenneth Isaiah Ibasco “Ken” Abante is one of the recipients of the prestigious JCI Philippines The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Awards for 2023. He is the President of WeSolve Foundation, Inc. a nonprofit that empowers communities towards systems change through community building, research, policy advocacy, fundraising, and training. He was former Chief of Staff of the Strategy, Economics, and Results Group of the Department of Finance, Government of the Philippines, and coordinator of social movements including the Citizens’ Budget Tracker, Tarabangan Kontra COVID-19, and Move As One Coalition. Ken believes the honor belongs to the community movements that inspired and formed him.

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On June 30, 2020, Ateneo de Naga Junior High School writers Periel Matthew “Matt” Panganiban and Elaine Nicole Guevarra featured Kenneth Isaiah Ibasco Abante in the school’s “Hearts on Fire” anthology. These are stories of hope, advocacy, service, and passion about outstanding alumni of the Junior High School, a social media project of the Campus Ministry Office and Student Government Organization. (About the writers: Matt is now in senior HS and Elaine is now in college.)

Formative Years

The Hearts on Fire story about Ken speaks volumes about his formative high school years. He shared his experiences that made an impact on this life and about how he valued the lasting friendships that grew from those years:

“I describe my time in Ateneo de Naga High School as a fun learning experience. I met my best friends there. Back then, we loved to hang out at our tambayan near the ramps of the east wing of the high school entrance. We could not afford fancy food so we would buy our own Voice crackers and pancit canton and bring them to Lolo’s Bar at Avenue Plaza. There are fourteen of us in our barkada, and up to now, we’re all still very close. We have reunions every year. My best friends made my time in high school great.”

“My best friends really helped shape who I am. It was in high school when I learned to go beyond myself and think of serving others.” He narrates some stories of his best friends who inspire him: [Raffy Magno, who is now Executive Director at Angat Buhay; Merce Atian, who served as a health care worker in Bicol fighting COVID-19, Jaycee Belmonte, who is a singer and now Partnerships Manager at Angat Buhay, who continues her active engagement with her parents Lolo Andy and Mariza; Neithan and Jen Casano, who lead Pixel Zero Digital Solutions, a firm that worked on Angat Buhay’s website and donation platform; Myk Gregory Albao, a teacher at UP College of Law, and whose dad Aik, a lawyer for the people, had passed on a few years ago]. [Editor’s Note: With updated information] “I can talk all day about how my best friends and their compassionate families changed my life for the better.”

Ken acknowledged his years in high school as truly formative and expressed deep gratitude to his teachers and mentors:

“It was in Ateneo de Naga where I first caught a glimpse of this truth: Service begets gratitude. Gratitude begets service. I read my life as a continuous unfolding of God’s providence. Nothing I have done can ever explain why I deserve the generosity given me. This is why I continue to serve: it is the only possible response from a heart brimming with gratitude. A heart on fire is a thankful heart.”

“One of the most important lessons is that we’re constantly evolving. There’s a saying from Ma’am Tita Natividad, my former Math teacher and former high school principal: that we’re all unfinished projects. Learning does not end when the bells ring and classes stop. We learn from others. We need to ask for help and listen.”

He thanked his teachers in Naga for helping him prepare for a life of learning. He shared how Ma’am Olive Grace Serrano-Victoria and Ma’am V (Vilma Maravilla Cañete) helped prepare him for his college studies. Sir Willy Niebres helped him hone his math competency, while Ma’am Elma Padua his computer skills. Doing journal entries as suggested by Ma’am Eden Maguigad and Mr. MJ Tatel helped improve his writing skills. His debate coach Mommy Neva Bermundo helped sharpen his critical thinking and public speaking skills. He credits his grade school teachers at the Naga Parochial School for inculcating in him his love of God and country: including Teachers Nancy Patanao, Trece and Fatima Maqueda, Agnes Villanueva, Susan Echano, and his preschool teachers Betty Soriano Borja and Esther Cañaveral.

Academic and Professional Achievements

Ken graduated top of his class from grade school to graduate school: valedictorian in Naga Parochial School in 2004, valedictorian at Ateneo de Naga University High School in 2008, valedictorian at Ateneo de Manila University in 2012. In 2019, he finished his master’s in public administration in international development from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was awarded the class’s two top distinctions: the Raymond Vernon Award for Commitment to International Development and Academic Excellence and the Outstanding Second Year Policy Analysis Award for “Minimizing Smuggling and Restoring Public Trust in the Philippine Bureau of Customs.”

At such a young age, Ken has already accomplished much as a policy researcher, teacher, organizer, and public servant. He believes in the power of ordinary people to push for systemic change towards a just and equitable world. His advocacies deal with public issues that many people consider hopeless. However, he remains hopeful and resolute even as he hears ordinary citizens express their frustrations, “Wala nang pag-asa ang Pilipinas?” He believes any broken system in our country can be changed by communities working together and building collective solutions through sound research and organization.

Ken is currently engaged in policy research and social movements that address crucial public issues of our time. He is able to do this work because he serves as President of WeSolve Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded that empowers communities and supports social movements to achieve systems change through community building, research, advocacy, fundraising, and training. He is also the co-founder of the Bagumbayani Initiative, a volunteer effort to recruit young people into public service. He is focused on public transportation and mobility, budget transparency and accountability, and health emergency response. He assists grassroots organizations in understanding the budget process in national and local governments.

Since 2019, Ken has written, with many collaborators, more than 38 papers and presentations in various fields that empower communities to claim their space in governance and democracy. As an advocate for open science, open data, and freedom of information, Ken publishes his open papers in ResearchGate where they have been read nearly 120,000 times, at the 98th percentile of researchers who publish there. His open data are on Github. His research aims to empower communities to claim their democratic space and fight for their rights. Ken is research faculty at the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, which values the impact of community-based research and creative work.

Public Transport and Mobility

Ken serves as the coordinator (2020-2023) and adviser (July 2023-onwards) of Move As One Coalition, a coalition of 142 organizations advocating for policies and budgets for safe, humane, and inclusive public transport systems. One of the reasons for massive traffic congestion is a system of urban planning and budget that focuses on cars, not people or nature. Ken says, “Our cities and our transport system should prioritize people and nature over cars.” The coalition’s collective action to address the massive public transport shortage and to improve commuter experience has led to the passage of P38 billion in budgets for road-based public transport from 2020 to 2024, from near-zero in 2019. Their movement convinced the government to increase investments in road-based public transport: The latest Public Investment Program now has an additional P700+ billion for protected bike lane and active transport networks, better contracts for transport workers, and investments in jeep and bus systems. As a consequence, road-based public transport investments as a percentage of the total transport infrastructure flagship project pipeline has shifted from 2 percent to 27 percent. This has resulted in a transport investment mix that has a better balance for a better normal. Another key accomplishment has been the payment of 19,000 transport workers under the service contracting program. Ken received the Rotary Peace Advocate Award 2021, and his coalition work was also supported by the Coalitions for Change Program by DFAT and The Asia Foundation.

Ken thanks the more than 140 young mobility leaders, who are now leading reforms and movements in their respective local communities around the country. The movements are now being led by a new generation of activists that graduated from their programs: Ilog Pasiglahin led by the Pasig River Fairies and the #PAREXtinguishers are fighting to protect the Pasig River and its tributaries. The Metro Naga Active Transport Community led the creation of Naga City’s first protected bike lanes and its bike lane network. The Safe and Sound Cities fellows also in Naga City are creating skate parks, improving detection of illegally parked cars, and improving street safety and lighting. #MakeItSafer Movement (MISMO) Group, fighting for safety, spaces, and solidarity in Metro Manila, led the restoration of the Ayala Avenue bike lanes, protested the removal of the San Juan bike lanes, and are now leading the charge in protesting against MMDA’s anti-poor and pro-traffic ban of e-bikes and e-trikes on national roads.

Covid Response and Accountability

Ken serves as the coordinator of the civic group, Tarabangán Naga, the COVID-19 response volunteers’ group which managed two COVID-19 surges in Naga City. This was the time when funeral homes were turning away the dead and a significant number of healthcare workers were getting sick. He thanked the volunteers whose collective action saved lives. They lowered the seven-day average positivity rate from 30 percent to 8 percent in a couple of weeks, tested 1,571 patients in July 2021 through the Office of the Vice President’s Swab Cab and isolated and monitored patients, inspected 272 establishments for minimum public health standard compliance through #ApatDapat bikers, and vaccinated 1,728 people in supplementary off-site vaccinations by mobilizing 326 vaccine volunteers. The group drafted four Citizens’ Charters and Operations Manuals for prevention, testing, patient monitoring, vaccination, which determined government service levels during the pandemic.

At the national level, Ken serves as coordinator of Citizens’ Budget Tracker, a community of more than 60 volunteers that held those in power to account by monitoring COVID-19 funds. The group tracked COVID-19 response and recovery programs via bit.ly/covidbudgetph, until the Office of the President stopped reporting on budget use in January 2021. It ran a proof-of-concept local budget tracker with the Municipality of Gumaca, Quezon (https://gumaca.gov.ph/cares/). The group studied P20 billion in pandemic contracts and investigated top pandemic contractor Pharmally Pharmaceutical’s financial statements and sent their findings to the Senate ethics committee, in partnership with the Right to Know, Right Now Coalition. They collaborated with journalists, researchers, advocates, to report the truth about the budget. The movement has evolved from budget transparency to budget advocacy, showing working models for how to incorporate budget work into another advocacy.

Ken also helped organize the People’s Budget Coalition, an alliance of ten civil society organizations pushing for a more equitable COVID-19 recovery budget. Every year, the Philippine government decides on how to spend trillions of pesos in taxpayer money, but ordinary people are normally excluded from decision making. The coalition organized across political divides and strategically critiqued the government’s COVID-19 recovery budget and advocated for the realignment of P1.2 trillion of the P5 trillion proposed budget in 2022 towards a more equitable recovery program for health, labor, social welfare, mobility, among others. Of this total amount, it managed to successfully push for P69 billion in realignments; P100 billion if one includes unprogrammed appropriations. This amount is small relative to the need, but it effectively demonstrated the power of collective action in pushing for these budgets in Congress. It organized briefings on consensus inputs with the Senate Committee on Finance and allied legislators and organized press conferences with sector leaders. Its proposals were amplified on the editorial page of our country’s leading broadsheet.

Public Finance and Budgeting

Early in his career, Ken served in the Department of Finance from 2012 to 2016 in various capacities to improve tax, customs, and local finance policy and administration to generate more domestic resources to fund social welfare, health, and services for the Filipino people. In 2012, in his first government assignment in the Department, he worked with passionate advocates in the Sin Tax Coalition to increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol to fund the country’s universal health care program, despite many saying this was impossible given the outsize political influence of the “strongest tobacco lobby in Asia” and a powerful alcohol lobby. With the sin tax reform winning by just one vote in the Senate, the Sin Tax Coalition showed Ken the power of people’s movements in pushing for change and the power of an open government willing to collaborate. He also commended the customs reform team who shone a light on what many consider to be the most corrupt agency in government, who opened up its datasets for research, and who breathed hope into an agency many considered hopeless. He would then dedicate his master’s thesis to Art Lachica, a career official appointed customs deputy commissioner who was gunned down in an ambush in 2016. He stayed on for 120 days from July to October 2016 to organize a smooth transition of the Department of Finance leadership team and to set up the Strategy, Economics, and Results Group with then Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua.

More recently, Ken has trained public servants and students in the discipline of completed staff work and budget research and advocacy.  He guided and mentored nine Young Budget Leaders, who have crafted budgets their sectors deserve in the fields of human rights, labor, inclusion of persons with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ rights, waste workers’ welfare, social services for survivors of trafficking, and services for internally displaced peoples in Bangsamoro, among others. He worked with the Naga City People’s Council – NCPC, which supports 15 sectors in Naga City in developing P55 million in bottom-up budget proposals for the city council. It studied the city’s P1.6 billion budget and P13.7 billion annual investment program and collated comments from NCPC sectors that brought up more than 134 budget questions to the city’s 37 offices as envisioned in the Naga City People’s Budget Ordinance of 2017. This enabled the understanding of established mechanisms to deepen people’s participation in the budget process.

Civic Engagement at Work

Ken helped create the Data for Empowerment Alliance which seeks to open government data to empower people to: (a) address the learning crisis, (b) improve civil service, and (c) measure success in mobility that centers on people and nature, not cars. He credits the EDCOM 2 – Second Congressional Commission on Education, his WeSolve education team, and UPPEJA fellows, who are working to improve education data governance to address the miseducation and learning crisis.

He acknowledges the support of members of the Open Contracting and Open Government community. In 2023, WeSolve was selected to take part in an impact accelerator program called Lift. It is one of the ten projects selected by the Open Contracting Partnership from a pool of 150 proposals from 70 countries. In this project WeSolve is working with the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) to improve competition, public integrity, and trust in the procurement of common use supplies in government, which covers around P1.6 billion in purchases annually.

Social Movements

In 2017, after the undeserved hero’s burial accorded to the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Ken became founding project director of the Martial Law Museum. He worked and engaged with more than 500 experts, teachers, and volunteers to build an educational resource for teaching the lessons of martial law history, the terror of dictatorship, and the importance of democracy. Launched in just half a year, the museum team consists of deeply committed volunteers, supportive leaders in Ateneo de Manila University, and creative partners in Dapat studio, formerly Works of Heart. Exhibits at the museum (https://martiallawmuseum.ph) are now being used in classrooms, news articles, and in popular discourse in preserving national memory.

Ken is also one of the founders of the Bagumbayani Initiative. It is a group of young civil servants in 2015 to 2017 who aimed to promote positive change and integrity in government by sustainably recruiting young people into the civil service and demonstrating it as a practical, viable, and purposeful career option. Their collective action which pursued a Match-Train-Sustain strategy led 77,000+ people to apply for 6,000 government jobs in Kalibrr, an online job search platform. The group matched at least 173 jobs in 15 government agencies, encouraged 355 people to take the civil service exams in Ateneo de Manila University, and built a community inside and outside government to guide young people in government.

Testimonials

In support of Ken’s nomination to the TOYM, he received testimonials from prominent government and civic leaders. The following are excerpts from selected statements:

Ken is the pride of our home city. When my husband Jesse was Naga City Mayor, he awarded Ken the best debater in a regional tournament. I consider Ken a model student and outstanding Filipino. This is not only because of his achievements. More importantly, this is because of his commitment to service. Three things set Ken apart from other academically gifted individuals. First, he has a sincere heart for public service. Right after graduating top of his class, he chose to work in government despite lucrative corporate offers. Second, he has the courage to make a political stand and speak truth to power. He has taken leadership roles in his university’s martial law memorial effort so that our people will never forget the abuses of dictatorial rule. Third, he loves his country and his Bikol heritage. As a scholar all his life, Ken’s mission is to give back to the community who has given him much. He has inspired many of the best graduates of his generation to enter public service and has become a symbol for youth participation in government.

Leni Gerona Robredo, Former Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines; Chairperson, Angat Pinas, Inc. (Angat Buhay Foundation)

I have known Ken since I heard him give his university’s valedictory address in 2012. I decided to recruit him straight out of college because I saw how passionately he wanted to serve the Philippines. True to the promise I saw in him, Ken showed versatility, openness, and the ability to learn quickly and execute strategy in his four years in the Department of Finance. Ken goes wherever he is most needed and delivers results. I assigned him to some of the most technically demanding roles in the department. His critical role in the achievement of our country’s development objectives is undeniable

Cesar V. Purisima, Former Secretary of Finance of the Republic of the Philippines (2005; 2010-2016)

Ken was active and visible in the reform effort—backstopping former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima during the tobacco and alcohol tax hearings; facilitating the coordination between the Department of Finance under Secretary Carlos Dominguez on the one hand and civil society on the other hand in relation to the comprehensive tax reforms; shepherding the multi-sectoral coalition called Move as One in its mission to make active transportation and efficient mass transport responsive to the mobility of the essential workers during the  pandemic; tracking or monitoring the national government budget to promote transparency and accountability; collaborating with other researchers to develop evidence-based, data-driven proposals that can be adopted by both the private and public sectors to contain COVID-19 and thus enable recovery.

Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III, Coordinator, Action for Economic Reforms

I have deep personal and professional admiration for Ken for his sincere and authentic servant-leadership and acumen in bringing people together and managing teams to work towards impactful projects for the public good. I witnessed this first-hand as a volunteer for the Citizen Budget Tracker’s project on COVID-19 procurement data and analytics, with support from the Hivos Southeast Asia, that resulted in an open dataset and paper released in May 2020. More than one year on, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation on government transactions under COVID-19 procurement made this a national issue. I again witnessed Ken’s acute and steady leadership in re-mobilizing volunteers and partnerships, this time with Right to Know, Right Now! coalition, to do research, publish materials, and participate in the public discourse to highlight the need to strengthen procurement in and beyond the time of pandemic.

Dr. Reinabelle C. Reyes, National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman, Volunteer and Co-author, Citizens’ Budget Tracker; Co-founder of A Coalition for A Better Science And Research Environment In The Philippines

When I was thinking about building a practice of collective impact at WeSolve, I knew I had to recruit Ken to lead and develop this practice because of his consistent track record in community and social movements. Ken has shown resolve, commitment, and perseverance that is rooted in service and faith. Over the past three years, I have seen how much Ken cares about our country. This care springs from his deep wells of empathy and faith, and his experience as a scholar since grade school.

Rapa Lopa, Chairperson, WeSolve Foundation Inc.

As one of the administrators in the Ateneo de Manila University Standards Committee who interviewed and decided on his class’s graduation honors, I attest to Ken’s exceptional record in community service and academics. We selected Ken as the batch valedictorian. He graduated program awardee of management engineering and finished his minor in philosophy degree at the School of Humanities. For us at the Standards Committee, Ken embodies the vision of the school—a person for others who shares God’s light to the world. Ken’s life choices in college and after graduation have shown his consistent, faithful commitment to serve the country and to stand with our country’s poor and marginalized.

Rofel G. Brion, PhD, Professor and Former Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Ateneo de Manila University

I have known Ken Abante for the past 8 years. In whatever initiative Ken is a part of–and there are many–Ken achieves results by involving stakeholders, empowering them with knowledge and skills, and enhancing leadership and accountability. There are two important principles reflected in Ken’s life and work: (1) Government performs better when it is accountable to its citizens; and (2) a strong and well-informed civil society helps to hold Government accountable.

Dr. Robert Y. Siy, Jr., Sustainable mobility advocate; Columnist, The Manila Times; Advisor and Co-Convenor, Move As One Coalition

Ken never fails to respond to calls of need. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard, or if he’s tired, or if it’s dangerous. Kung meron pong kailangan ng tulong, lagi nariyan si Ken para tumugon. Nakita ko ito sa Move As One. Noong pinagbawalan bumiyahe ang public transport workers at nagdusa ang napakaraming Pilipino – mga manggagawa na kailangang pumasok sa trabaho, mga matatanda’t may sakit na kailangang makarating ng ospital, mga jeepney driver na hindi makapaghanapbuhay, mga komyuter na walang masakyan, at marami pang iba – si Ken ay nag-aya sa mga kaibigan at kakilala na tumugon sa public transport crisis.

Reycel Hyacenth Bendana, Former Secretary-General and Current Coordinator, Move As One Coalition; Manager, WeSolve Foundation, Inc.

More about the TOYM Awardee and his works

Ken hails from Canaman, Iriga, and Naga, Camarines Sur. As a scholar from grade school to graduate school, he understands that his family, his community, and his country has given him much, so he is doing his best to pay it forward. Ken loves cooking adobo and laing, but he says his cooking will never be nearly as good as his dear mother.

Ken Abante is an advocate for open science, open data, and freedom of information. His research aims to empower communities to claim their democratic space and fight for their rights. Many of his open papers can be viewed on ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ken-Abante/research) and on these websites.

This report was written by Jojo De Jesus for Dateline Ibalon based on content from his interview with Ken Abante on Zoom, the ADNU JHS Hearts on Fire anthology, Ken Abante’s FB page and his TOYM JCI bid testimonials, plus excerpts from the WeSolve Foundation and Move As One websites. The header images represent Ken’s advocacies: citizen empowerment, public mobility, and the Martial Law Museum. Photo of EDSA Carousel bus from Top Gear.ph; other photos from the Martial Law Museum.