Labor Attaché Ma. Celeste M. Valderrama is named the new OIC-Executive Director of the Institute for Labor Studies.

Valderrama assumes management of the Institute while Mary Grace L. Riguer, CESO IV, is on study leave.

OIC-Exec. Dir. Valderrama has 33 years of experience in public service, initially joining the Department of Labor and Employment in 1986 through the Institute for Labor and Manpower Studies (ILMS), the precursor to the Institute for Labor Studies. While at ILMS, she worked on the transition stage requirements of the Department during the government reorganization of 1987. She also became part of the Planning Service where she rose from Division Chief to Director III and where she spearheaded the completion of the DOLE medium-term development plan (2004-2010). In 2005, she became Assistant Regional Director for DOLE National Capital Region where she managed the worker’s welfare and wage employment operations. In 2007, she was named Director III of the Human Resource Development Service where she managed the organizational transition of DOLE upon the approval of its rationalization plan. In 2010, she became Director IV for International Labor Affairs Bureau, taking charge of the development of policies, programs, and operating standards for the effective operation of 38 Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs).

Prior to joining the Institute, OIC-Executive Director Valderrama’s latest post was at POLO in Geneva, Switzerland.

OIC-Exec. Dir. Valderrama graduated cum laude from the Colegio de San Juan de Letran with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and later earned a Masters Degree in Industrial Relations from the University of the Philippines.