Ken Abante - Bureau of Customs, Public Mobility, Martial Law, and the 2022 Elections - 'RAMING TANONG #22

Kenneth Isaiah Ibasco Abante (Ken) is an organizer, researcher, and teacher who believes in the power of people’s collective action. He believes that we can change any broken system if we study and work together to build collective solutions. He is currently employed with the WeSolve Foundation as its Managing Director for practice and partnerships, a part-time Faculty in the Ateneo de Manila University where he teaches "Youth Leadership for Engaged Citizenship" at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, a consultant for International Organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, alongside a laundry list of civil society and volunteer organizations where he strives to make the Philippines better. 

His academic achievements are stratospheric. He graduated cum laude and batch valedictorian in 2012 from ADMU. He'd subsequently work in government with the Department of Finance before going back to school to obtain a Masters in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School. While in Harvard he'd go on to be awarded 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". 

In today's episode, we talk about the Bureau of Customs, the problem of traffic in Manila, the history of Martial Law and Ken's pick for the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines, Leni Robredo. The online resources of the Martial Law Museum can be found here.