DOH, ASOG continue fight against tobacco with new policy fellows

The Ateneo School of Government (ASOG), through the Ateneo Policy Center (APC), and its government partner, the Department of Health (DOH), welcomes the Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy Development Fellowship (TPC PDF)’s 2nd cohort of Fellows—Mr  Adrian Matthew G Glova and Mr Patrick James C Encarnacion RPh.

Now in its second round in 2025, the TPC PDF is a program developed to strategically support the six priority areas identified under the DOH’s National Tobacco Prevention and Control Strategy 2030 (NTPCS 2030). The program aims to recruit public health and medical experts who are interested in championing tobacco control in the Philippines. The fellowship opened and ran applications for one month, then conducted a series of panel interviews and thorough deliberation of all submitted policy research proposals. The grant was then awarded to two fellows whose proposals were assessed as most relevant and value-adding under the context of the NTPCS 2030.

Mr Adrian Matthew G Glova is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines School of Statistics (UPSS), where he specializes in econometric modelling, time series forecasting, and the impact evaluation of socio-economic interventions. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines - Diliman with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master of Science in Statistics. He is also completing his Master of Science in Statistics Research at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Chevening Scholar of the UK government. Prior to entering the academe, he was an Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Budget and Management, a Bank Officer at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and a Research Assistant at ASOG.

Mr Patrick James C Encarnacion RPh is a pharmacist and health researcher with more than 8 years of experience in health research. He is currently completing his Master's degree at the University of the Philippines Manila, with his thesis focusing on the cost-effectiveness of pharmacy-based smoking cessation services. He currently serves as Senior Research Consultant at the Alliance for Improving Health Outcomes and as Partner at CrunchLab Health Analytics. He is also a Project Co-Lead for developing health technology assessment methods guide for preventive and promotive health technologies, and is co-principal investigator for an economic assessment of stroke medications. His work focuses on generating economic and outcomes evidence to support healthcare decision-making in the Philippines, with particular interest in preventive health interventions and their impact on population health and quality of life. He has collaborated with organizations such as the Department of Health, USAID, and the Asian Development Bank to develop policies and guide resource allocation in the health system.

The fellows will receive guidance from the members of the TPC PDF Advisory Board, namely: Atty. Sophia Monica San Luis, Executive Director of ImagineLaw; Dr Paul Lawrence Filomeno, Country Representative to the International Society of Addiction Medicine-NeXT; Dr Nadia Doytch, faculty member at the City University of New York (CUNY); Dr Madeleine Valera, Senior Technical Adviser at Vital Strategies; and Dr Gianna Gayle Amul, Non-resident Research Fellow at APC. Each fellow is paired with a mentor for personalized guidance, with Atty. San Luis mentoring Mr Glova and Dr Filomeno mentoring Mr Encarnacion.

As the only higher education institution with a program dedicated to Tobacco Control and Governance, ASOG commits to the advancement of tobacco control research in the country by supporting emerging tobacco champions through the TPC PDF. To fight the ever-evolving epidemic of tobacco and e-cigarette use, it is imperative that we continue supporting nationwide efforts to curb preventable deaths. This demands for evidence-based policies supported by sustainable and continuous policy research.