Ateneo School of Government – Executive Education Program Implements Operations Research Training for the Armed Forces of the Philippines

The training acquainted the participants with the importance of research and how evidence produced through it can help them in policy making and operations efficiency in the military. It provided them the basics of Operations Research. Developed through the initiative of Colonel Harold M. Cabunoc, Chief of the ORC, the training is run for two days – the first was dedicated for an organizational strategic forum and the second one was for the hard and technical information about operations research. On the afternoon portion of the second day, the Resource Speaker, Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, an ASOG Senior Fellow, facilitated a workshop wherein participants applied what they have acquired in the lectures and plenary discussion. They were given hypothetical military scenarios, in the areas of military engineering and logistics, disaster operations, military health services, national security policy operations, and military financing, and were asked to answer research questions related thereto.
 
This training program is the first step towards the larger goal of the Operations Research Center to evolve into the Philippine Army’s Office of Strategic Studies. Colonel Cabunoc intends to implement similar training in the future for the human resource development of the civilian and uniformed personnel alike.