About the Contributors 263 About the Contributors Rene B. Azurin is the author of several books on management, politics, economics, and government, the latest being Hacking our Democracy: the Conspiracy to Electronically Control Philippine Elections (2013). An industrial engineer with masteral and doctoral degrees in business administration, he has been a work systems consultant, a development banker, and top business executive. For many years he taught MBA courses at the University of the Philippines and has been a consultant on policy and strategy for important government agencies such as the Department of Energy and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Maria Cecilia Gastardo-Conaco is Professor of Psychology at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. She obtained her Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara under a FulbrightHayes fellowship. In 1991, she was a recipient of the Outstanding Young Scientists award by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) of the Philippines. She has published on a variety of topics, including women's health and sexuality, adolescent reproductive health, social identity and participation in social movements, cognitions of human rights, citizenship behaviors, the psychology of poverty, digital inuence, cross-cultural relations, and indigenous psychology. She has been the coordinator of the Human Potential Development Program, a joint program of the University of the Philippines and the University of Kassel in Germany. Ronald D. Holmes is an educator and social sciences researcher. A member of the political science faculty of De La Salle University since 1985, he has led academic and professional organizations including the Philippine Social Science Council, the Philippine Political Science Association, and currently, Pulse Asia Research, Inc. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in international, political, and strategic studies at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacic Affairs, The Australian National University. Felipe B. Miranda is an emeritus professor at the University of the Philippines and former chair of its Department of Political Science. He was a past president of the Philippine Political Science Association and the founding vice-president of Social Weather Stations (SWS). Later he became the founding president of