Core TEAM

Executive Director: Gemma B. Sumague

​Gemma is a visionary leader, community advocate, and multi-disciplinary professional who masterfully integrates healthcare, social work, public governance, legal background, and education into a powerful force for sustainable agricultural transformation.

​The Holistic Advocate (RN, RSW): A rare multi-professional, Gemma is both a Registered Nurse (RN) and a Registered Social Worker (RSW). She has dedicated her career to community health and social development, transitioning from clinical care to the source of all wellness: Sustainable Agriculture.

​Academic, Governance & Legal Frameworks: Holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Diploma in Teaching, paired with three years of Bachelor of Laws studies; masterfully combines advanced public sector management, pedagogical expertise, and policy analysis to structure impactful grassroots programs and protect smallholder farmers. 

​​Ecosystem Founding & Leadership:  As a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Solution Ecosystems Activator (SEA Inc.), she has been instrumental in designing and activating collaborative, multi-stakeholders, societal three folding participatory governance  among CSOs, Business sector and political  framework that drive sustainable community and ecological development.

​Special Projects &  Inclusive Value Chain: Demonstrating versatile management capabilities, she serves as the Office Manager of Smart Agriculture, a Lifebank special project  research in the advance inclusive entrepreneurial sustainable agriculture throughout the value chain in poverty eradication and food security.

​Corporate Excellence: She served as a Department Manager at SM City, where she was honored as a "Star Manager" for consistent sales achievements and commercial acumen.

​National and Local Leadership: She led the Ecosystem of Stakeholders for Sustainable Agriculture (ESSA) as the Executive Director, a nationwide initiative unifying organic farmers, medical doctors, State colleges and universities with SA Programs, Business,Spiritual groups, youth, indigenous groups and local government units.

​Community Roots: In Santa Barbara, Iloilo, she serves as a vital bridge between the people and the government, serving as the incumbent President of the Local People’s Council and Chairperson of the Municipal Agriculture and Fisheries Council (MAFC), having also recently completed her tenure as President of the Santa Barbara Municipal P4MP Federation of Farmers Associations.

​Visionary Milestones: She is currently spearheading the Organic Soya Value Chain program, launching the Safe Food Movement in Santa Barbara to empower youth and local farmers through zero-waste, organic production. 

Administrative and Finance Officer: Amy G. Laspiñas

Anchoring our operational backbone is a tech business strategist and AI learning specialist with a strong foundation in IT systems, software development, geographic information systems, and financial analytics.

• Financial Systems Development & Governance: Conducted business process reengineering to deploy Great Plains Dynamics accounting software for a major conglomerate's subsidiary; developed and migrated core accounting modules from a legacy system to Informix-4GL while managing system administration for an aviation firm.

• Enterprise Disbursement Support: Managed production support, database corrections and integrity checks, and functional specifications for an Oracle database integrated with SAP Financials, serving a disbursement module of over 3,000 users.

• Financial Proposal & Case Synthesis: Synthesized risk assessments and financial models into investment-ready business cases for international Waste-to-Energy projects; authored high-stakes investment proposals for a nationwide cooperative transport modernization framework.

• Project Administration & Logistics: Managed multi-site coordination and delivery of internationally funded pre-feasibility studies across six cross-regional sites; led USAID-funded biomass resource assessments in the Visayas, supervising local research teams and stakeholder engagement.

• Procurement & Project Coordination: Served as Project Coordinator for a European-funded (Umverteilen!) fair-trade initiative, executing order planning, product inventory procurement, partner assessments, and sales tracking to build sustainable community livelihoods.

• Strategic Planning & Institutional Governance: Served as consulting researcher and lead technical author for country-level technology roadmapping projects for Waste-to-Energy (WTE); facilitated regional site investigations and community dialogues for the National Inquiry on Climate Change (NICC); spearheaded process documentation and evaluation frameworks for a national Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB) call center; facilitated/ co-facilitated strategic operational roadmaps for various government agencies and non-governmental organizations. 

• Systems Engineering & Training: Grounded in a solid background as an analyst programmer and tech educator who designs IT curricula, conducts school readiness assessments for AI integration, and instructs intensive software engineering bootcamps.

• Education: Bachelor of Computer Science (UP Diliman) and completed Basic Financial Accounting extension lectures (National University of Singapore).

Production Assistant: John Julroy C. Calibang

Running our production operations on the ground, he serves as our primary operational anchor, bridging over 26 years of advanced industrial research with powerful grassroots farmer mobilization.

• Professional Milestones: Mr. Calibang brings over 26 years of experience as an agricultural consultant, researcher, and manager. He served as the National Technical and Servicing Division Head for Assenture Industries Inc. and directed sustainable agronomic research as the SAVE Organic Research Farm Manager.

• Grassroots Institutional Leader: He wields a powerful community mandate as the Chairman of the Santa Barbara Municipal P4MP Federation of Farmers Associations and President of the Coconut Farmers Association, managing the agricultural transitions of multi-cluster farmer networks.

• Premier Technical Specialist: A master of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) and zero-tillage technologies, he has spearheaded dozens of collaborative, climate-resilient field and crop trials with national and global authorities including IRRI, PhilRice, Monsanto, and the Department of Agriculture.

• Veteran Master Trainer: With 20 years of experience leading Farmers Field Schools (FFS) and technical seminars, he has trained thousands of rural farmers across the Philippines in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), localized organic input production, and farm business management.

• Architect of Holistic Wellness: Merging environmental sustainability with public health, he is an active leader in the Safe Food Movement who champions a "soil-to-table" economy where agricultural products are cultivated as nutrient-dense "Life Food".

• Education & Expertise: He holds a BS in Agriculture and maintains advanced specializations in Natural/ Biological Farming, Permaculture Technology, Biodynamic Farming, and Alternative Medical Practice specializing in Advanced Iridology.

Processing Officer: Rommel Rolando G. Bailey

Leading our processing and technical development is a seasoned expert in sustainable agriculture and organic soy systems.

• Professional Background: Rommel brings over two decades of experience in agro-enterprise development and organic food processing. He is a co-owner of Likhaya Food Products, specializing in organic soy-based essentials like chilled taho, soymilk, and tofu.

• Expertise in Soy Innovation: He has extensive experience conducting soy processing workshops and researching new product developments for high-quality, nutrient-dense offerings.

• Regenerative Agriculture Specialist: A practitioner of Natural Farming and the Organic System of Rice Intensification (SRI), he aligns with AVCWOI's mission of soil restoration.

• Community Mentor: He has served as a consultant for foundations such as CODESPA, LifeBank, and iRelief, training farmers and women in value chain management and organic soybean processing.

• Education: He holds a BS in Agriculture (major in Animal Science) from the University of the Philippines, Los Baños

Market Development Officer: Alvin Rey V. Montero

A dynamic, results-driven strategist with an exceptional blend of commercial marketing management, corporate-government stakeholder relations, and complex multi-site project operations.

• Commercial Marketing & Client Acquisition: Directed comprehensive marketing strategies, client acquisition frameworks, and portfolio expansion for an insurance services firm; managed high-performing sales teams, corporate relations, and partner onboarding initiatives.

• Advocacy-Driven Market Expansion: Leads provincial operations and membership growth for Eunlad Marketing Cooperative, driving market programs that promote organic inputs to reclaim agricultural lands to natural farming, while building growth partnerships with LGUs and community networks 

• High-Stakes Stakeholder Engagement: Coordinates inter-agency communications, policy support, and strategic planning with national agencies, LGUs, and private sectors through executive-level roles within the Office of the President and the House of Representatives.

• Field Logistics & Campaign Activation: Spearheaded field coordination, operational planning, and the execution of community-based sustainability initiatives as a Special Operations Officer and agricultural Production Manager.

• Technical Operations & Cross-Cultural Leadership: Grounded in an 8-year international maritime engineering background, bringing rigorous technical analysis, crisis management, and cross-cultural teamwork to large-scale market development campaigns.

• Education: Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering (John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University).