Profile of Dr. Romeo Quijano

Profile of Dr. Romeo Quijano

Dr.   Romeo   F.  Quijano  was   a   professor  of   pharmacology   and toxicology at the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines (UP) in  Manila  for  39  years  until  his  retirement  in  2014.  He  is  currently  a member of the Steering Council  of  Pesticide  Action  Network  Asia  Pacific  (PANAP) and president of PAN Philippines, board member of the Institute for Occupational Safety, Health and Development (IOHSAD), member of the Philippine Society of Clinical and Occupational Toxicology, and chairman emeritus of Health Action for Human Rights.

Dr.  Quijano has worked with various  public-interest and community based NGOs and mass organizations  in public awareness campaigns  about  the  health  and  environmental  hazards  of  toxic chemicals. As  a  toxicologist, he has also been involved  in various  government-initiated health investigations and services in various toxic hot spots and disaster areas in the Philippines.

Dr.  Quijano has documented and publicized the health and environmental effects of pesticides in the Philippines and other countries, and has served as  the  main  technical  resource  person  in  trainings,  conferences  and  fact-finding  missions  here and abroad. He  has  led  campaigns  to  increase  public  awareness  on  the  dangers  of  hazardous pesticides, especially aerial spraying in banana and oil palm plantations in Mindanao. For his pursuit of science in public interest  even under fierce attack by those in power and with vested interests, Dr. Quijano was given the Jennifer Altman Foundation (USA) award in 2005.

From 1998 until 2008, Dr. Quijano served as the worldwide representative of public interest NGOs in the Standing Committee of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS).  For his meaningful contributions, he was given the Presidential Recognition Award in 2006 by the IFCS.  He also  served  as  the  Southern  Co-Chair  of  the  International  Persistent  Organic  Pollutants  Elimination Network (IPEN) from 1998 until 2006. IPEN played a critical role in shaping the first treaty to ban the world’s most  dangerous  chemicals –the  Stockholm  Convention.  Dr.  Quijano  played  a  key  role  in  the  long  but successful campaign to have the very toxic pesticide endosulfan banned globally under the POPs treaty.  Dr.  Quijano  also  represented  public  interest  NGOs  as  a  Bureau  Member  at  the  UN  sponsored  IAASTD (International  Assessment  on  Agricultural  Knowledge,  Science  and  Technology),  which  held  marathon meetings from 2004 to 2008 and which finally came-up with reports calling for a radical transformation of the world’s food and agricultural system, practices, institutions and policies.

Dr. Quijano has also done several scientific studies in pharmacology and was an active participant in the campaign for a National Drug Policy and Generics Law in the Philippines.  He was a member of the advisory council of Health Action International Asia Pacific and was active in the national, regional and  international  campaign  for  rational  drug  use.  He  was  also  a  delegate  and  speaker at the 2nd International People’s Health Assembly and at the First Session of the International People’s Health University.

Dr. Quijano has also been a project leader of the National Integrated Research Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP) since 1982 and was awarded the Presidential Lingkod Bayan (Service to the Country Award) in 1987 for significant researches on medicinal plants. In 2009, Dr. Quijano also received the Outstanding Community Service  Award given by the University of the Philippines Medical  Alumni Society (UPMAS).

He also served as the chairperson of the Health Alliance of Democracy and Medical Action Group.

For  the  past  10  years  or  so,  Dr.  Quijano  has  been  operating  small  organic  farms in Mindanao  where  he  grows  organic  sugarcane,  banana,  coconut,  cacao,  coffee,  marang,  durian,  and various  medicinal  plants.  He  also  established  a  community-based  herbal  medicine  processing  center which provides affordable herbal medicines to alternative medicine practitioners, community members, NGO network partners and others.