Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Expert Panel 1 : On the PH Northern Borderlands

Venue: Seminar Room
Moderator: Dr. Michelle R. Palumbarit
ALIYA S. PELEO, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Asian Center, UP Diliman

Dr. Aliya Peleo earned her Ph.D. from the Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She has an MA in International Development from the Graduate School of International Relations at the International University of Japan in Niigata, Japan. She has worked on a number of development projects in Central Asia with UNESCO, the Peace Corps/Kazakhstan, USAID, and ADB. Her research interests include biopolitics, cultural symbolism and identity, regionalism, international norms and development, and agriculture.

RONALD A. PERNIA, PH.D.
Assistant Professor, Ateneo de Manila University

Dr. Ronald A. Pernia is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ateneo de Manila University whose research explores the intersection of comparative politics and political psychology. An award-winning scholar, he earned his Ph.D. from National Sun Yat-sen University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, focusing on how threat perception influences political trust and democratic resilience. His extensive body of work is featured in prestigious international journals such as Democratization and the Journal of East Asian Studies, and he is currently finalizing a book with Routledge titled How Threat Perception Strengthens Governments and Authoritarian Alternatives: From Trust to Power. Utilizing mixed methods—ranging from survey analysis to computational text analysis—Dr. Pernia provides critical insights into authoritarian values and governance across the Philippines and the broader Asian region.

LT. GEN MICHAEL TING-SHENG LEE, PH.D.
Deputy Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines (TECO)

Ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Lee currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in the Philippines. He also served as Deputy Chief in the Republic of China Armed Forces. Deputy Representative Lee finished his MBA at the National Taiwan University in 2016, and also graduated from the Graduate Institute of National Development of the same University in 2020. He also studied Strategy Studies at Harvard University's Kennedy School. As TECO Deputy Representative, Lt. Gen. Lee is currently active in building collaborations between Taiwan and the Philippines, including through his recent visit to establish agricultural and cultural partnerships with Batanes.