A native of Pampanga, Senen C. Bacani is a product of the De La Salle University where he received his Bachelor of Science in Commerce in 1965, Summa Cum Laude and Class Valedictorian. A CPA, Mr. Bacani was granted an East-West Center Scholarship in 1966 and graduated from the University of Hawaii with a Master of Business Administration in 1968.

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Right after graduation, Mr. Bacani started his career with Dole Company in Hawaii. For the next 22 years, Mr. Bacani progressively occupied management positions of increasing responsibility in the Philippines, Thailand, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Mr. Bacani was the first non-American General Manager of Dole in Costa Rica (1978) and in the Philippines (1983).

 

In 1988, after the CARP law was passed in June, Mr. Bacani was able to negotiate the turnover of 9,000 hectares of agriculture land to the employee cooperative for subsequent leaseback to the company. The CLOA was awarded in December 1988 and became the model for a win-win proposition for both company and agrarian reform beneficiaries.

 

In 1989, Mr. Bacani was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by Former President Corazon C. Aquino. During his watch as Agriculture Secretary, the country was self-sufficient in rice, corn and sugar (1991-1992) and in fact exported all three (3) commodities in one year.

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After his stint in government, Mr. Bacani co-founded a few agribusinesses in Mindanao among which is La Frutera, Inc. - The first large-scale banana plantation in Muslim Mindanao. For the last 13 years, this company has been a model of how development and peace go together.

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Believing that cooperatives have a pivotal role to play in the consolidation and integration of fragmented rural lands and in uplifting the lives of the rural poor, Mr. Bacani has spent considerable time trying to help the cooperatives work together.

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Mr. Bacani is the Chairman of the National Cooperative Movement Service Cooperative and the Cooperative Sector Council of the National Anti-Poverty Commission and headed the Philippine Cooperative Center from 2003-2008.

 

Mr. Bacani was the initial Treasurer (2002-2008) of one of the biggest NGOs in the country, the Peace & Equity Foundation, which has been able to disburse around PhP 200 million per year from earnings of its endowment fund to help the poorest of the poor in our country.

 

Mr. Bacani is still active in professional organizations like the MAP, which he has served as a member of the Board of Governors for five different years. At one time, he was also the President of the Philippine Chamber of Food Manufacturers, Inc. and Vice President of PCCI.

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In 1992, Mr. Bacani was recognized by the Senate leadership as one of the most outstanding cabinet members. He has also been a recipient of the Benedictine Centennial Award for Agriculture (1995), the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2006), the La Sallian Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2008) and the Ten Outstanding Filipino Award for Agriculture (2009).