G-Watch Executive Board and Advisory Board
The G-Watch Center is managed by an Executive Board, which also serves as a collective oversight/ accountability check for the basic organizational and management processes of the G-Watch Center.
The Advisory Board is composed of representatives from key partners, communities and sites of G-Watch. Its main function is to provide inputs and advice on the strategic direction of the Center and the network. Their oversight/ accountability role vis-a-vis the G-Watch Center shall be in terms of checking the strategic/ long-term goals and priorities of the G-Watch Center and core networks/ communities.
Joy Aceron
Convenor-Director/ Strategies and Learning
Core Executive Board
Joy Aceron is the Convenor-Director of G-Watch and concurrently a Research Fellow of Accountability Research Center (ARC) based in the School of International Service at American University. A graduate of the University of the Philippines with bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in public policy, Joy has 15 years of experience in citizen monitoring, citizenship education and civil society-government engagement and has published works on civil society participation, political reform and vertically-integrated citizen-led reform campaigns.
Rechie J Tugawin
Monitoring and Training; Advocacy and Communications
Core Executive Board
Rechie started his engagement with G-Watch as a volunteer monitor for Textbook Count in 2005, when he was still a student leader at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has since then become an integral part of the growth of G-Watch, primarily handling the capacity-building and citizen monitoring work of the team. Outside G-Watch, he is also engaged with other organizations working on peace and human rights, and youth advocacy.
Francis Isaac
Research and Knowledge Development
Core Executive Board
Francis is a researcher at Government Watch (G-Watch), who has written a number of studies on Philippine elections, social movements, human rights and agrarian reform. He is also involved with various NGOs and citizens-led reform campaigns in the Philippines. Francis is currently taking his masters in International Studies in De La Salle University in Manila.
Glenford Leonillo
Non-Operations Executive Board
Glenford Leonillo is an administrative and operations support professional with experience in documentation management, workflow coordination, and internal communication systems. He previously served as a Programme Officer at G-Watch (2008–2012), contributing to project coordination and localization efforts. He has since supported various organizations in improving processes, organizing information, and ensuring smooth day-to-day operations.
Philip Don Recentes
Non-Operations Executive Board
A young lawyer who is applying his advocacy for transparency, accountability and human rights in the private sector. He worked as G-Watch Project Officer from 2010 to 2012 and was part of the team that initiated the application of social accountability in human rights monitoring in partnership with the Commission of Human Rights. Some of the projects he worked with as G-Watch Project Officer include Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL) Vote Watch and Internaly Displaced Persons (IDP) Rights Watch.
Victor Ma. Regis "Vico" Sotto
Non-Operations Executive Board
A champion of good governance and people empowerment, Vico is currently the City Mayor of the highly urbanized city of Pasig. He briefly worked as a project associate under G-Watch before running for office in 2016. As a city legislator in 2016-2019, he has successfully worked for the passage of an ordinance prescribing the city's process for the accreditation of civil society organizations and their selection to the local special bodies, and continues to advocate for the institutionalization of transparency, participation, and accountability measures in governance.
Anna Bueno
Anna Bueno is a lawyer, writer and researcher. She is currently part of Imagine Law, heading their tobacco control for health initiative.
Key Components of the G-Watch Center's Work
Strategies and Learning
G-Watch advances strategic citizen action through participatory learning and the synergy of research and practice. It employs an eco-systemic, integrated and holistic view of accountability, aims to scale accountability through multi-level action and coalition-building and engages the agenda-setting of different policy and development actors.
Monitoring and Training
G-Watch supports citizen monitoring of government performance and resource allocation and utilization, looking at innovative and principled ways to sustain and scale citizen initiatives that work.
Advocacy and Communications
G-Watch ensures uptake of research and monitoring findings by publicizing its work and call to action to galvanize public support and by deliberately seeking response and action of government and duty-bearers. It takes advantage of the advent of information communication technology (ICT) to reach out to a broader audience and for more efficient organizing.
Research and Knowledge Development
G-Watch supports the 'democratization' of knowledge development by amplifying the voice of TPA actors and practitioners in knowledge production and outputs and by raising the voice of the Global South in knowledge agenda-setting on TPA. It also aims to continue conducting research and producing knowledge outputs that are relevant and useful to policy actors.
Administration and Finance
G-Watch's central administration is guided by principles of efficiency and responsiveness that is founded on trust and solidarity balanced by results-oriented accountability.