Leonardo De Castro, PhD (Swansea)

He previously served as Department Chair and Centennial Professor at the UP Department of Philosophy. He was Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore and Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Bioethics Review. He chairs the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board, the national body that sets policies and regulates research ethics committees in the country. He sits on the National Ethics Committee. He has served on the National Bioethics Advisory Committee and the National Transplant Ethics Committee. He has been President of the Asian Bioethics Association, Vice-Chair of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee, Vice-Chair of the Forum for Ethics Review Committees in Asia and the Pacific, and a Bioethics Consultant to the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the European Union and the European Commission. His research interests include research ethics, responsible conduct of research, bioethics teaching, organ transplantation, healthcare worker migration and resource allocation.
Selected Publications:
- De Castro-Hamoy, L, de Castro, LD. Age matters but it should not be used to discriminate against the elderly in allocating scarce resources in the context of COVID-19. Asian Bioethics Review 2020; https://doi.org/10.1007/s41649-020-00130-6
- “Ethics Education Needs More than the Four Principles: Bioethics Discourse in a Community of Inquiry” (With Isidro Valero) ten Have H. (eds) Global Education in Bioethics. Advancing Global Bioethics, vol 10. Springer International Publishing, 15 June 2018. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-78984-2_5
- ” Ethics in Migration and Global Health Delivery: Issues of Justice and Integrity” (With Peter A. Sy) Asia Pacific Journal of Health Law & Ethics Vol.10 No.2/ 2017. 29-50 http://www.eible-journal.org/index.php/APHLE/article/view/45/2
- “Sharing Organs for Transplantation: Altruism as Kagandahang Loob” Erik Malmqvist and Kristin Zeiler, eds. Bodily Exchanges, Bioethics and Border Crossing. London: Routledge, 2016. 70-86. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315717760/chapters/10.4324/9781315717760-14
- Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Research Ethics. (with Peter Sy and Nur Izzati Binte Soonan). James D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 20. Oxford: Elsevier. pp.508–513. ISBN: 9780080970868. Elsevier Ltd., 2015. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080970868110219
- “Medical Tourism” (with Peter Sy and Jaryl Gan) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer Science+Business Media. Dordrecht 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_282-1
- “Bioethics Education in Resource-Challenged Countries” (with Toledano, Sarah Jane) Henk A.M.J. ten Have, ed. Bioethics Education in a Global Perspective: Challenges in global bioethics. Dordrecht: Springer, 2015. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9232-5_12
- “Governance of Biomedical Research in Singapore and the Challenge of Conflicts of Interest” (with Ho, C. and Campbell, A.V.) Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 23, no. 3: 288-296. (2014) https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963180113000893
- “Organ donation in the Philippines: should the dead do more?” Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, XI, no. 3 (2014) 143-150. https://doi.org/10.20529/ijme.2014.039
- “The Paradigm of Living, Related Donation: Stretched, Strained and Abused?” Akira Akabayashi, ed. The Future of Bioethics: International Dialogues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682676.001.0001/acprof-9780199682676-chapter-62
- “Organ donation and social amelioration: a two-pronged approach to organ trafficking” (with Peter Sy). Akira Akabayashi, ed. The Future of Bioethics: International Dialogues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682676.001.0001/acprof-9780199682676-chapter-57
- “Philippines” (with Sarah Jane Toledano) in H.A.M.J. ten Have, B. Gordijn (eds.), Compendium and Atlas of Global Bioethics, 1391-1416 (Springer). https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-007-2512-6_44
- “The Declaration of Istanbul in the Philippines: Success with Foreigners but a Continuing Challenge for Local Transplant Tourism” Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 16, no. 4 (2013) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11019-013-9474-4
- “Payment of Research Subjects” (with Teoh Chin Leong) in Ruth Chadwick, ed. The Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 2nd Ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2011. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123739322000570
- “Poverty and Indigenous Peoples” (with Peter A. Sy and Teoh Chin Leong) in Ruth Chadwick, Henk Ten Have and Eric Meslin, eds. The Sage Handbook of Heath Care Ethics. London: Sage Publications, Ltd., 2011. https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=lUITcsvdz-UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
- “Beyond Informed Consent: A Model of Collective Guardianship for Ethical Genetic Research” (with Teoh Chin Leong) in Soraj Hongladarom, ed. Genomics and Bioethics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Technologies and Advancements. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 2010. https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/beyond-informed-consent/47295
- “The Ethics of Organ Transplantation: Shortages and Strategies.” Annals Academy of Medicine Singapore. April 2009, Vol.38. No. 4. pp. 359-364. (3 authors) http://www.annals.edu.sg/pdf/38VolNo4Apr2009/V38N4p359.pdf
- “Pagamento a participantes de pesquisa / Payment for research participants” in Recis: Electronic Journal of Communication, Information and Innovation in Health, Supplement, Vol. 2 – Research Ethics. Available: http://www.reciis.cict.fiocruz.br/index.php/reciis/article/view/209
- “Organ trafficking and transplant tourism and commercialism: the Declaration of Istanbul” (co-authored as part of the Steering Committee of the Istanbul Summit) in Lancet. 2008 Jul 5;372(9632):5-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60967-8
- “Human organs from prisoners: Kidneys-for-life,” Journal of Medical Ethics, 29 (2003). http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.3.171
- “Commodification and exploitation: Arguments in favour of compensated organ donation,” Journal of Medical Ethics, 29 (2003). http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.3.142
Agerico Montecillo De Villa, MA

- Has taught for 35 years at UP Diliman Philosophy Department.
- Has been a lecturer at the UP Diliman College of Science and College of Human Kinetics.
- Has been a lecturer at the Claret Seminary and the Philippine Women’s University.
- Has authored two books for Katha Publications and a book for UP Press.
- Has been a member of the DENR-EMB Environmental Impact Assessment Review Committee from 1991 to 2020.
- Presently board of directors member of Tayabas Western Academy.
- Presently president of Batangas Eastern Colleges.
- Presently chairman of ICT start-up company Bridge360, Inc.
Karen Connie Abalos-Orendain, PhD

Brief Bio
𝐃𝐫. 𝐊𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐬-𝐎𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐢𝐧 finished her undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of the Philippines. Her undergraduate thesis topic is on Journalism Ethics as viewed in the Philippine setting. Afterwards, she immediately started teaching in her home university as an Instructor, where she served for seven years before she became a writer for a local entertainment channel. She then became a writer and editor for various websites and magazines.
In 2012, she received the Monbukagakusho or the Japanese Government Scholarship enabling her to finish her graduate and doctoral studies in Kobe University. Her thesis and dissertation focused on an analysis of cosmopolitan norms and the rights of migrant workers. In 2018, she returned to the University of the Philippines, Diliman where she teaches Socio-Political Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Comparative and Japanese Philosophy as well as Contemporary Philosophy.
She is an Associate Editor for several journals including: Social Science Diliman, Lumina, and Philippine Social Sciences Review. In 2021 & 2022 she was awarded the UP Diliman Centennial Faculty Grant and also a recipient of the ONE UP Professorial Chair Award in Applied Ethics for Outstanding Teaching and Public Service (2022-2024). From 2021-2023, she served as the Chair of the Department of Philosophy.