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Interdisciplinary Conference on Accountability, Reform, and Engagement 2025
| Written by Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc
UP National College of Public Administration and Governance Dean and ICARE Secretary General Kristoffer Berse (rightmost) hands out certificates of appreciation to the three public officials headlining the ICARE opening program. From left, UP Diliman Chancellor Edgardo Carlo Vistan II, UP President Angelo Jimenez, and Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina Belmonte. Photo by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.
The University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance, through its Governance Reform, Innovation, and Transformation Research Laboratories, organized the 2025 Interdisciplinary Conference on Accountability, Reform, and Engagement held Dec. 9 to 11 at the Quezon City Meetings, Incentives, Conference & Exhibitions Center.
In solidarity with the UN International Anti-Corruption Day, ICARE2025 brought together scholars, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers who shared research findings, identified policy solutions, and engaged in conversations to promote governance accountability and reform.
Assisted by UP National College of Public Administration and Governance Dean and ICARE Secretary General Kristoffer Berse (standing second from right), UP President Angelo Jimenez (writing, left) and Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte (writing, right) ink their pledges for the Tree of Commitment. Photo by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.UP President Angelo Jimenez encourages participants of the conference to “talk the talk” or pursue actions to sustain reforms. Photo by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.“Even as we strengthen our mechanisms, we have to contend with deeper structural barriers to genuine transparency, accountability, and participation,”says Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina Belmonte. Photo by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.
A highlight of the conference was the launch of the ICARE Consortium — “a multistakeholder platform that will serve as a watchdog, a think-and-do network, and an interdisciplinary community of practice to promote integrity and reform across sectors.”
The conference began with welcome remarks from UP President Angelo Jimenez, UP Diliman Chancellor Edgardo Carlo Vistan II, and Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte. They then wrote pledges on a Tree of Commitment, an activity inspired by the Tanabata tradition. Each note represented a personal and institutional promise to advance integrity and sustained reform, according to the organizers.
UP Diliman Chancellor Edgardo Carlo Vistan II (right) attaches his pledge to the Tree of Commitment. In his welcome remarks, he said accountability is constitutional, moral, and indispensable to public trust. Photo by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.“Our pathology is no longer committed out of necessity due to low government wages, but out of avarice, arrogance, amorality, and apathy,” UP National College of Public Administration and Governance Dean and ICARE Secretary General Kristoffer Berse says of the current trend of corruption scandals in government. Photo by Misael Bacani, UPS-MCO.
“We at the University of the Philippines stand with the Filipino people in seeking justice — justice for resources taken, justice for opportunities denied, justice for lives lost,” Jimenez said.
