The Philippines

Roberto "Obet" Ador

There are those who follow their life vision from an early age and others who tread lightly on one path and at some point, find themselves on another or series of other paths. Roberto “Obet” Ador knew that the trajectory of his life would lead him to serve other people, and he met this calling way back in his elementary years as a young student leader.

Now the Executive Director of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP), Ador is very passionate about helping the marginalized sectors of society and has helped establish and manage a number of NGOs involved in rural development. Throughout the years and organizations, he has been committed to sharpening people’s leadership skills and developing new leaders. After attending the Future Search leadership seminar and joining a communication planning training for Catholics for Choice, Ador became a Leadership Development on Mobilizing Reproductive Health (LDM) Fellow where he was able to sharpen and reinforce his current skill set, and continue to learn new concepts to build his approach to training future leaders in the community.

Ador admits that his personal passion for community work developed naturally. As a consistent honor student in the province of Albay, he was given roles by his teachers and fellow students that helped bring about his personal leadership style and at the same time, stoked his fervent fire for community service.

“My student activism provided me proper perspective. My family was also not well off, which is why I have a certain affinity with poor people,” he shares.

Ador became one of the national state scholars under the Marcos government and then moved to Manila to study chemical engineering at the University of the Philippines, Diliman (UP). Ador explains that the choice for coursework was not his own though he did find value that aided him in his later work. 

“During that time, the scholars were required to be involved in the sciences. I never got to use my chemical engineering background, but I have to admit that the critical thinking I learned from that course has helped me a lot in life. I was involved in the sciences in college, but I had a totally different calling in life.”

Serious Activism

At UP, Ador’s student activism was in full force as he joined the multitude of students who fought the Marcos dictatorship. He dropped out of his third year in college and went underground in 1972. When he was caught the following year, he was incarcerated for 14 months. After serving time, he continued his studies at the Aquinas University and graduated with a degree in Chemistry. Despite the difficulties and dangers he faced in fighting for his beliefs, Ador pursued his activism and continued to push for national reform.

“Because I saw that the situation wasn’t changing and there was still oppression all around, I had the mindset to continue serving the people in whatever way I could. So I worked hard on graduating first because I thought that having a title was important in pursuing my goals.”

In 1978 Ador joined the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as Section Chief of the Rural Organization and Education Unit, and transferred to the office of the Assistant Minister in 1981. Here Ador’s office provided assistance to sugar workers by helping them set up income-generating projects and organizing them into cooperatives or associations. Ador notes that at that time, he really felt that he was fulfilling his dream of helping people but in hindsight reflects differently.

“With my work with DOLE, I learned that there are certain limits to what government agencies can do. I found it too restricting” Ador relates.

Honing Future Leaders

Ador’s frustration with the government further heightened in 1984, the year after Ninoy Aquino was assassinated and the following year, he left DOLE because he felt that it would be better for him to work in areas where he could take control over his work. He started working as an independent consultant and was heavily involved with the Partnership with Rural Organization Development (PRODEV), an NGO he and his colleagues organized in 1983.

“I usually see my presence in organizations as short-lived because I feel that I can provide assistance to many others if I’m not tied down to one. My goal in managing an organization is to develop future leaders for it.” In 1996, after a career with PRODEV and consulting, Ador moved on to take the role of Executive Director at the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population Development (PLCPD).

As a Leadership Fellow, Ador infuses his knowledge and strength in leadership development and passion for Reproductive Health with his current work at FPOP, imbibing the elements of Reproductive Health through the organization’s service delivery. They now have 29 clinics and 25 chapters operating all over the country through volunteers who are connected with different communities. His goal is for FPOP to have Philhealth-accredited clinics and RH-inspired hospitals, which he says should be achieved in the next five years.

With more than three decades worth of contribution to countless organizations, Ador has indeed fulfilled his life’s calling. According to him, he would most likely espouse the same advocacy for Reproductive Health and other national development issues even after he develops new leaders for FPOP. “I would probably be thinking about it, while fishing,” he laughs.

-Lhot Jiz de Ortega, Contributing Author