Antonio La Viña

Antonio G. M. La Viña is a Filipino lawyer, educator, and environmental policy expert. He is currently dean of the Ateneo School of Government in Makati City, Philippines.

Education

La Viña attended the Ateneo de Manila University, where he graduated in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy. He then taught philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila and Xavier University.

He then took up law at the University of the Philippines College of Law, where he finished with a Bachelor of Laws degree, and placed third in the 1989 Philippine Bar Examination. La Viña spent several years as a professor of law at UP in the 1990s, and as a human rights and environmental attorney serving indigenous peoples and other local communities.

In 1992, La Viña attended Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, where he specializing in international environmental law and policy and writing a dissertation on climate change. took up his Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees. At Yale, he focused on international environmental law and policy and wrote a dissertation on climate change.

Career

La Viña has held teaching posts at the Ateneo de Manila University and Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro, as well as the University of the Philippines College of Law.

While a professor at UP, he co-founded the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan, a human rights organization.

In 1996, at the age of 36, he was appointed Undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), where he recruited, mentored, and led a team of 25-30 young lawyers and scientists that implemented legal and policy reforms in the Philippines. They emphasized the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, efficient and fair access to justice in administrative decisions, public participation and stakeholder consensus building in environmental decision-making, and innovative programs in environmental regulation. He served as Undersecretary until June 1998, and mostly served as the DENR's crisis manager.

From 1998-2006, before returning to the Philippines from the United States, he was director of the Biological Resources Program and senior fellow in Institutions and Governance of the World Resources Institute in Washington D.C., with several offers for plum posts in international organizations. He also served as h Undersecretary for Legal and Legislative Affairs and Attached Agencies of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). He continues to be the Philippine representative to Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, an international network of social entrepreneurship advocates.

In 2006, La Viña accepted an invitation to become Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, succeeding Antonette Palma-Angeles who was Acting Dean from April 2005 to May 2006.

International policy positions held

Some of his international policy positions include:

*Trustee, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (since March 2005)
*Vice-Chair, Commission on Environmental Law, IUCN – The World Conservation Union, (since 2004); Member since 1997;
*Legal Expert/Consultant, UNEP-GEF Project on Development of National Biosafety Frameworks, (since 2004)
*Vice President, Bureau of the Working Group on a Biosafety Protocol under the Biodiversity Convention, (1995-98)

References

* [http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=25&aid=2830 An interview with ASG Dean Tony La Viña] . Posted 26 September 2006. Last accessed, 27 June 2007.
* [http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&aid=2479 La Viña is new dean of School of Government] Posted 16 June 2006. Last accessed 27 June 2007.