Lucian Dioneda started out as a policy researcher for Senator Grace Poe when she ran foer the senate in 2013. Since then he has risen to the Head of her advocacy team and played an important role in the passage of laws like the Balik Scientist Act, Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act, the Pantawid Pamilya Act, the Land Terminal Improvement Act, and the Safe Spaces Act. Luc lives and breathes the daily problems of Filipinos and clearly articulates why the "obvious problems" are not as cut and dry as we like to make them out to be. In today's episode we talk about Luc's philosophy when approaching policy changes, the state of Philippine Politics, and how Duterte became President.

Over the course of this podcast, Luc mentions several books. They are the following: 

1. John Kingdon's Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies  

2. John Bew's Realpolitik  

3. Joe Studwell's How Asia Works

4. Marites Danguilen's The RH Bil Story  

5. The Asia Foundation's Built on Dreams, Grounded in Reality

Morgan Joseph is an Associate Director at Gallagher UK. He started his journey in the insurance industry in his home town in Cebu growing up around his father, Gordon Joseph, himself heavily engaged in the insurance industry. He would follow the winds of opportunity though, first, when he went to get educated in Manila and, again, when he took up what he intended would be a short internship in the UK. Now, he specializes in getting clients insurance policies in the Mining and Heavy Industry in the vibrant Insurance industry in the United Kingdom.

In today's episode, we talk about what Morgan's journey to the UK, Insurance in the UK, Insurance in the Philippines and Derivatives. 

Atty. Marian Vanslembrouck is an accomplished lawyer in the fields of Corporate and Technology Law. She began her professional life as an associate of one of the most prestigious law firms in the country Puno & Puno Law Office. Thereafter, she would return home for a stint with Metro Dumaguete Water before jumping back into her previous specialization with the software company Enjin.  In this episode, we talk about the regulatory frameworks for startups that employ technology, the experience of being from the province and making it in Manila, and the the transition from the field of medicine to law.

Kiwi is a good friend of mine that I have known since I was a baby. She is currently a PhD Candidate at Harvard University at the Biological Sciences in Public Health Program and a student in the Harvard Leder Bioilogy in Translational Medicine Program at the Harvard Medical School. Currently, her mentors are Dr., lee Rubin and Dr. Kristopher Sarosiek at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her areas of research involve aging, cell death, and metabolism.

It is her hope that she can contribute to the body of work that would allow medicine to supply ways to prevent the decline in health normally associated with aging. Specifically, she studies how the decline in brain vasculature structures in the brain correlates with the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Dementia. In her words, she is looking for ways to allow people to age gracefully. In this episode she will also touch on what it took for a girl from Cebu to make it to one of the world's premier scientific institutions.

Atty. Joan Dela Cruz is who came from a Development Studies Background in college had the privilege of being the Executive Assistant to DILG's  Jessie Robredo. She would dip in and out of politics, both local and national, in her time in law school. No stranger to the halls of power, she struck out on her own as a lawyer in a high calibre law firm based out of Ortigas. Thereafter, she would jump into trying to influence policy through an NGO. In a sentence, she has made her life about trying to make the Philippines a better place to live and to be.

Through this journey she has dealt with the loss of a mentor and father figure, the repercussions of her political affiliations, and seen the sharp uptick in contempt for human rights. In her personal life she is attempting to balance the expectations placed on her a s a Filipina and how they conflict with her role as a lawyer.

This is 'raming tanong with your host Rami. This weekly podcast will feature guests from all walks of life in the Philippines. It will chronicle their respective journey’s to success. Hopefully, hearing their journeys helps you on yours as well. I do hope you enjoy my episodes.

Leiron Martija is a graduate of the San Beda College Alabang - School of Law. He is currently reviewing for the first ever virtual bar exam in the Philippines. Leiron's law school journey was a long and difficult one because he began in UP's College of Law, before transfering to Ateneo De Manila University's School of Law and finishing up in San Beda. He shares the difficulties he encountered, how he overcame them, and the small details that people forget when they imagine the grand journey of law school.

Dr. Ray Perez II the second has the distinct honor of having topped the boards, not once but twice. Whereas other guests on this podcast can lay claim to being in multiple fields, Ray stands out for his devotion and incredible competence to the practice of medicine. In today's episode he talks about the path towards topping the boards twice, the challenges of becoming and being a doctor, and the "Delta" variant of COVID.

Joelson Fabian is the co-founder and CEO of Polka.PH — an e-commerce startup from Cebu making it easy and affordable for Filipinos to shop online. As a lifelong entrepreneur, his many passions include learning foreign languages and building new business models. Microsoft Excel and other productivity tools are not just a way of life for him, so much as they are a requirement for participation in civilized society. Joelson made the jump from working for Samsung to working for himself and that brought with it many insights which he will bring to bear in today's episode. 

Today, we talk about culture, spreadsheets, and why not to leave the Philippines.

Veronica Baguio is currently an  Educator, Entrepreneur and a Junior HR Consultant.  She splits her time between this various roles time while successfully balancing the needs of each. As an educator, she is a Principal to the students of Britech College. As an entrepreneur, she owns Balik Batik a social enterprise which uses indigenous Filipino weaves in new and modern ways. In her role as as Junior HR consultant, she serves some of the largest businesses that are based out of Cebu.  In today’s episode we talk about the path that lead her to this juncture in her life and how her upbringing and education helped her get there.