Up Close and Personal Carmen D. Padilla, World President of IOV

Carmen D. Padilla, World President of IOV was elected by the IOV General Assembly in Deva , Romania , in 2002. She is currently the Chair of the Culture Committee of the UNESCO National Commission-Philippines. She is the Chair of the Philippine Memory of the World (MOW Philippines) and Vice-Chair of the MOW Committee of Asia Pacific (MOWCAP). She is Chair of the Philippine National Committee on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. She was the Acting Chair (1996-1998) and Executive Director (1990-1998) of the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). The NCCA functions as the Ministry of Culture. Carmen has served in many leadership capacities, including Chief of Staff of the President of the Philippines Senate, Vice President of the NAMEI Polytechnic Institute, Faculty Coordinator of Music in St. Theresa’s College and Senior Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication. Academically, Carmen excelled in music, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at St. Scholastica’s College. While at St. Scholastica’s College, Carmen was elected President of the Student Council. She was a Battig Music Scholar and a member of the Honors Society. She completed her graduate studies in Developmental Education** at the University of Santo Tomas. Recently, she was also the recipient of the Centennial Award as outstanding graduate of the St. Scholastica’s College of Music in its 100th year celebration, November 2007 A concert pianist, Carmen has performed in major concerts halls throughout the world, including those of San Francisco, Manila and Korea. Recently she performed in the Centennial Concert of St Scholastica's College of Music. Performing four hands on two pianos with her sister, the “Dayrit Sisters” were guest artists at Philippine Independence Day celebration in Athens, Greece. On the occasion of the Philippine Centennial celebration, Carmen conducted a choir of 1000 voices and organized an International Conference on History attended by 800 academicians, historians, scholars, government and non-government organizations. As a cultural administrator, Carmen was instrumental in the drafting of the law creating the National Commission on Culture and the Arts. She coordinated the cultural leaders in this process. During her career as a government official, she traveled throughout the Philippine islands and organized more than 250 government and non-government organizations in arts and cultural heritage—members of 22 National Committees of NCCA. Through her work, she facilitated the giving of grants to visual artists, dance companies, musicians, librarians, museologists, archivists, promoted international cultural exchanges and brought needed attention to the plight of rural artisans and performers. Carmen travels the world as IOV’s Official Representative to be present at cultural events and conferences in all the continents of America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She has also participated in the General Conference at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris where she was her country’s delegate to the 2005 General Assembly.