Marilyn Manuel

Marilyn F. Manuel is a social worker by profession with over 40 years extensive training and experience in Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and Child Welfare/Child Protection work in the areas of policy formulation, program planning, management, supervision and technical assistance, capacity building, and networking/partnership building.

Her immersion in ECCD and child welfare started in 1976 being the lead person in overseeing the implementation of Day Care Service nationwide under the then Bureau of Family and Child Welfare, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). She then joined the following attached agencies to the DSWD: the Intercountry Adoption Board (ICAB), the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) and the Early Childhood Care and Development Council (ECCDC) where she retired in 2012. She held part time teaching position at the graduate level, College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines and at the College of Graduate Studies for Teacher Education, Philippine Normal University.

She continues her passionate engagement in ECCD child welfare/protection work and activities in her current position as Executive Director of Kaisahang Buhay Foundation, Inc. (a non-profit family and child welfare organization providing a range of child protection and ECCD services for vulnerable children and families), and as member of the Steering Committee of the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC).

Ms. Manuel earned her Bachelor of Science in Social Work from the University of the Philippines. She received her Postgraduate Diploma in Development Policy and Social Planning and Magister in Scientia Economica (field of study: social planning) from the University of Wales, UK a Colombo Plan scholar. Her dissertation was on Day Care Service in the Philippines: Issues and Challenges.

For her valuable contributions to the advancement of the social work profession in the country, Ms. Manuel was awarded as the 2005 Outstanding Professional of the Year Award in the Field of Social Work awarded by the Professional Regulation Commission and the 2004 Outstanding Social Worker for Child Welfare Policy awarded by the Philippine Association of Social Workers, Inc.