ATENEO de Manila University President Fr. Roberto Yap has been appointed as member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.

Yap was sworn in by Secretary Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority earlier this week.

He will serve on the PIDS Board alongside Balisacan and fellow members PIDS President Aniceto Orbeta Jr., Agricultural Guarantee Fund Pool Governing Board Member Gilberto Llanto and University of the Philippines System Vice President for Academic Affairs Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista.

“I look forward to promoting the work of the premier research institute in the country, which is to provide independent evidence-based and theoretically informed research on the pressing socioeconomic issues facing our people, especially the poor and the marginalized,” Yap said.

Yap, an economics professor, also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of ADMU, Ateneo de Davao University, and Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

He was a former president of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan and also held positions at the John J Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues, klima-Climate Change Center, and Institute on Church and Social Issues.