Friar Diosdado Tabios

Fr. Tabios (Dodge) is 38 years of age and lives in Valencia City, the Philippines. He is a Catholic Priest by profession, and has attended some human rights workshops and seminars focused on advocacy for human rights abuse victims. Fr. Dodge initiated the development of PAHRD, which represents an association of NGOs in the province which aim to promote the community’s participation in development with equal opportunity and equal access to resources, and he is now one of the Board of Directors and senior staff there. Much of his pastoral work has involved assisting the poor and collaborating with concerned government and non-government organisations in working towards bringing them out their existence in poverty. Fr. Dodge is currently involved in addressing the income needs of farming families in his parish with cooperative building. A significant part of his work includes campaigning for sympathetic people to hold political offices who will seek to influence policy to address the problems of poverty and unequal opportunity in development. Fr. Dodge believes that the training will enhance his personal knowledge and skills in human rights and in mechanisms also relative to his development work. He also believes that the training will contribute to the planning and policy formations of PAHRD in its human rights and development work. He looks forward to creating strong links with other similar NGOs and learning from their experience and to sharing some of his personal experiences in working with the poor in the Philippines.