The University of the East condoles with the family of the late Dr. Olivia C. Caoili, a former Director of UE’s Office of Research Coordination (ORC) who passed away this Friday, February 9, 2024, at age 84.
Dr. Caoili was the UE ORC Director for 14 years, from June 2006 to June 2020. That actually marked her second time to be part of the UE workforce, having first joined the University in July 1965 as a Department of Political Science faculty member of UE’s then College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (now College of Arts and Sciences). She was a UE faculty member for 10 years: as Instructor from 1965 to 1969, then as Assistant Professor from 1969 to 1975 (actively, up to 1971).
Born on November 29, 1940, in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Dr. Caoili was the eldest of eight children of Bicolano public physician-surgeon Luis Del Castillo Sr. and Laoagueño pharmacy graduate Filipinas Ranjo. Her father’s national rotation led to them living in Legaspi City in the Bicol Region, then in Pitong Gatang in Tondo, and back to Laoag, while her studies made Dr. Caoili live not just in various Philippine locales but in a few countries abroad.
She had been a bookworm and a diligent and disciplined student as a child, eventually graduating as Valedictorian twice: from the Isabelo de los Reyes Elementary School in 1953 and from the Ilocos Norte High School in Laoag City in 1957. She went on to enroll at the University of the Philippines to take up Political Science, the degree program suggested by her grandfather Juan Luz Ranjo, who had wanted her to become a lawyer. The young Olive was a scholar at UP: Aside from her entrance scholarship (equivalent in the present to being a “Rank 1” high school graduate), she was a college scholar for six semesters, a university scholar for one semester and, for a school year, was an undergraduate scholar of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). She earned her degree of Bachelor of Arts, Major in Political Science, in 1961, graduating Cum Laude.
The young Olive promptly pursued employment post-graduation, with the UP College of Public Administration as her first employer and being a Research Assistant as her first job, from January 1962 to July 1963. From September 1963 to June 1965, she got to take up Master of Arts, Major in Political Science and Public Administration, along with Graduate Courses in Political Science credited towards the Master in Arts Program, both at the University of Hawaii, both via an East-West Center graduate scholarship. (In line with her MA credits, she also took up graduate courses in Political Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, from July 1964 to January 1965.)
In the mid-1970s, she moved to England with her husband, Dr. Manuel Albano Caoili, who was undertaking a graduate scholarship. Soon they moved to Kingston, Canada, both pursuing their Doctor of Philosophy in Political Studies (and her third graduate degree overall) at Queen’s University—her major encompassing Modern Political Analysis, Political Development and Public Administration. She earned the Queen’s University Graduate Award, covering her first two years there, then underwent a teaching assistantship at Queen’s for about a year before moving to the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Canada for a dissertation-writing grant for learners from developing countries. Her Ph.D. Thesis Research Award from the IDRC eventually yielded her massive dissertation, a 510-page tome on “Science Policy in the Philippines: The Education and Training of Scientists and Engineers,” which she completed in August 1980.
When she returned to the Philippines for good, Dr. Caoili resumed a budding research career at the Center for Policy and Development Studies (CPDS) at UP Los Baños. While at UPLB, she was Researcher I, then Researcher II, then a Professorial Lecturer of the Management of Rural Development Program under the College of Development Economics and Management and, on several occasions, the Officer in Charge of the CPDS.
June 1983 marked the beginning of her 23-year career at UP Diliman, starting out as Associate Professor of Political Science at the campus’s College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, occasionally made the Officer in Charge of the College’s Political Science Department until she eventually was appointed Chairman of the Department. While she was a Professor of Political Science both at the college and postgraduate levels until her full retirement from UP in May 2006, Dr. Caoili had also been a Program Development Associate under the Office of the UP President, Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs (from January 1990 to August 1992), Secretary of the University and of the Board of Regents, Vice-President for Academic Affairs (December 1994 to August 1999) and, in several instances, OIC at the Office of the President.
It was while at UP that Dr. Caoili would amass about 39 research works and publications to her name, not to mention nearly 50 lectures or presentation papers, on various topics that broadly covered the spectra of political science and science and technology—making her a prolific member of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), specifically of NRCP’s Division VIII-Social Sciences, with specialization in Political Science. Her several publications include “The Internationalization of Higher Education in the Philippines,” which was co-authored with Ethel Valenzuela, under the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines’ The Reform and Development of Philippine Higher Education; “Alternative Views and Assessment of Higher Education,” for Alternative Views and Assessment of the Macapagal-Arroyo Presidency and Administration: Record and Legacy (2001-2004) Vol. 2; and “The Discipline of Political Science in the Philippines,” which she read at the Joint Workshop of the Asian Consortium for Political Research, held at Chuo University, Kora Kuen Campus, Tokyo, Japan, and published in Political Science in Asia.
Among Dr. Caoili’s many paper or poster presentations are “Convergence of Excellence in Research: Towards Life-long Innovation” for the 4th Annual University Research Forum of Centro Escolar University; “Developing a Research Culture in Universities” for the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities seminar on “Enhancing Graduate Education and Research” at the University of Cebu in Cebu City; “Leadership in Higher Education and the Challenges of Globalization: Philippine Perspectives on the Role of Women” as part of the “Global Dialogues: The Asia Series,” sponsored by the British Council in Tokyo, Japan; and “Multi-Disciplinary Issues, Challenges, and Directions: A Crisis Outlook,” delivered at the Second CAMANAVA Studies Conference in UE Caloocan.
Having been used to working all her life and widowed since her husband Manuel passed away on December 27, 1987, Dr. Olive accepted the invitation to be UE ORC Director by fellow UP alumna and colleague and then UE President and Chief Academic Officer Ester A. Garcia (who was UP’s VP for Academic Affairs while Dr. Caoili was the Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs).
As UE ORC Director, Dr. Caoili reactivated the UE Research Bulletin, becoming its default Editor and initially publishing the Bulletin’s 2006 edition with the proceedings of the five UE Diamond Jubilee colloquiums as content. Moreover, she helped cultivate a research mindset among the University’s constituency. As UE ORC Director, she was likewise a member of the UE Academic Council and led the Secretariat of the University Research Committee.
Dr. Caoili’s ORC efforts, under the aegis of then President Garcia and the rest of UE’s officialdom, bore much fruit by way of the annual bounty of not just research proposals but locally and internationally published research papers by UE academic officials, faculty members and students through the ensuing years. Under her, the UE ORC has likewise managed to conduct, since October 2006, research capability-building seminar workshops and research-writing workshops for UE faculty members.
Her lifelong inclination and savvy for research work led to Dr. Caoili’s election, in March 2007, as President of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), the country’s premier institution for basic research, under the Department of Science and Technology, with a constituency of about 3,000 scientists and researchers both in the government and private sector all over the country. Shortly before her election to the NRCP presidency, Dr. Caoili was also elected Chair of the Council’s Division of Social Sciences, one of the NRCP’s 12 divisions. As NRCP President, Dr. Caoili was the Chief Executive Officer of the Council and presided over the meetings of the Council and of the Governing Board; was the ex-officio member of the divisions and sections of the Council; and referred investigations required by the Government of the Philippines and other entities to the proper sections. Dr. Caoili’s one-year stint as NRCP President capped what was to be her fifth and final year as a member of the NRCP Board of Governors.
On August 22, 2012, Dr. Caoili was awarded by the International Association of Multidisciplinary Research (IAMURE) as Outstanding World Researcher, in a formal program held at the Marco Polo Hotel in Cebu City. The recognition was “for her world-class contribution to research and the demonstration of social responsibility as former President of the National Research Council of the Philippines.”
A doting grandmother to her grandchildren, Dr. Caoili had also been an active officer of the Quezon City village she called home and a lector-commentator for its parish church twice a week. For good measure, she had this inspiring motto on her wall at the ORC: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
Dr. Caoili’s remains lie in state at the Resurrection Chapel of the Sta. Maria della Strada Parish on Katipunan Road corner Pansol Street in Barangay Pansol, Quezon City, with the viewing set to start at 6 p.m. this Saturday, February 10, up to Tuesday, February 13, 2024. Her remains will be cremated on February 14, 2024, after the Concelebrated Mass at 11 a.m.
She is survived by his son, Dr. Salvador Eugenio Caoili, his family, and other loved ones.
Requiescat in Pace, Dr. Caoili, and thank you so much for your Warrior service and legacy to generations of members of the UE community!