Arsenio Balisacan

Arsenio Molina Balisacan (born November 8, 1957) is a Filipino economist and academician currently serving as the Secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Balisacan received a B.S. degree in agriculture from the Mariano Marcos State University in 1979, graduating magna cum laude.

Awarded a graduate scholarship by the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), he then took up a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in agricultural economics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, from which he graduated in 1982.

He served as research intern from July 1982 to May 1984 and was a Joint-Doctoral Research Intern from May 1984 to September 1985 under the Resource Systems Institute of EWC.

He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1985, with the dissertation "A positive theory of economic protection: Agricultural Policies in Developed and Developing Countries".

Balisacan received critical support from the East-West Center (EWC) while studying at the University of Hawaii.

Upon earning his PhD he served as a research fellow from October 1985 to March 1986.

As Balisacan wrapped up his PhD studies at the University of Hawaii Manoa, he took up a post as a research fellow at the East-West Center in 1985–1986.

He then moved to Washington D.C. in 1986 to serve as an economist for the World Bank.

Balisacan also served as a research fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and an economist at the World Bank in Washington, DC prior to joining the UP faculty in 1987.

Part of his pioneering PhD dissertation on the political economy of agricultural policy was later published in the Review of World Economics titled, “Public Choice of Economic Policy: The Growth of Agricultural Protection” in 1987.

He was named as one of the 100 outstanding alumni at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), (College of Economics and Management) (CEM)’s centenary.

He came back to the Philippines in 1987 and became an assistant professor of economics at the University of the Philippines Los Banos until 1988, when he moved to UP Diliman and joined the faculty of the University of the Philippines School of Economics, eventually receiving an academic appointment as full professor in 1995.

As a PhD in Economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Balisacan is a renowned academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) since 2008.

Balisacan was born in Solsona, Ilocos Norte, a remote town located at the foot of the Cordillera mountain range in Luzon.

His father initially worked as a farm tenant tilling fields in a resource-poor, isolated village of the town.

When their nun relative convinced his father to take on a janitorial job in Laoag City, however, his family had to make the difficult choice of leaving their farm life behind.

During their life in the city, Balisacan, his parents, and his five other siblings had were left with little choice but to settle down in a precarious area of land (where they were later on be evicted from).

Balisacan recalled that it was during his high school years when their family was forced out of the property and forced to go back to their tiny village at the easternmost part of Ilocos Norte.

''“It was tough.

It was only later on that I realized that we were an informal settler.

We were squatting in somebody’s land.

[When] I was already in high school, we were evicted from that place, and we had to return to that old town of ours,”'' Balisacan shared.

From his primary-school days all the way to his journey during post-graduate studies, Balisacan had to rely on scholarships, grants, and part-time employment for financial support while his family struggled.

He spent most of his formative years of basic education under the tutelage of the Divine Word College of Laoag and completed the last two years of secondary education in Ablan Memorial Academy of Solsona where he graduated as the valedictorian.

Balisacan credits his mother's aunt, Isidra Rivera, who was mayor of the town of Solsona, as his early inspiration in life.

“She devoted her life selflessly to this town,” he says.

''“She had actually very little physical possessions in life, especially when viewed in today’s cadre of local politicians.

What she had in abundance was deep respect and love by her people, unblemished credibility, and genuine concern for the poor.”''

Just when their family began to experience more financial struggles, Balisacan's eldest brother graduated from Divine Word College, equipped with an Accounting degree.

He was offered a job in Cebu City by Atlas Mining, which allowed him to uproot the family and bring them to settle down in Cebu.

Balisacan, however, who was an Agriculture scholar at the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) at the time, was left to stay behind in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Read more of his early years in these featured articles, "Arsenio M. Balisacan: Resolute at 25" by Cai Ordinario, Business Mirror Anniversary Issue and "Top Philippine Economist to Visit Hawaii" by Belinda Aquino, Hawaii Filipino Chronicle.

Balisacan first served as the NEDA Secretary from May 2012 to January 2016 under the Benigno Aquino III administration.

During his first term in 2012, he concurrently served as NEDA Secretary and as Chairman of the Boards of the Philippine Statistics Authority, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippine Center for Economic Development, and Public-Private Partnership Center.

Prior to his Cabinet appointment, Balisacan served as both Professor and Dean of the School of Economics at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP) while he was running the Philippine Center for Economic Development as its Executive Director.

He additionally served as the Director-Chief Executive of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), during a period of secondment from the University.

He then served under the Duterte administration as the Chairperson of the Philippine Competition Commission from February 1, 2016 to June 30, 2022.

He was again appointed as NEDA Secretary under the Bongbong Marcos administration.

He was conferred the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award by the East-West Center (EWC) and East-West Center Alumni Association (EWCAA), the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award by the UPLB Alumni Association, the 2005 Outstanding Alumni Award by the East-West Center Alumni Association Philippines, and the 2004 Most Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Mariano Marcos State University.