Professor Annabelle T. Abaya

Professor Annabelle T. Abaya is founder of The Conflict Resolution Group Foundation, Inc., a non-profit, non-stock organization dedicated to promoting non-adversarial processes of conflict resolution. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Management from HarvardUniversity’s Kennedy School of Government. She earned her Master’s Degree in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She pursued her doctorate in Conflict Resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy atTufts University. She had trained thousands of conflict resolution practitioners in over 300 agencies of government including, the Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Commission on Human Rights, Office of the Ombudsman, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, National Labor Relations Commission, Department of Trade and Industry. She served as mediation consultant of the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, Harvard University, United States Institute for Peace, among many others. She catalyzed the passage of the landmark law, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004. She served as Presidential Spokesperson of President Fidel V. Ramos. She was a member of the Government Panel that negotiated peace with the National Democratic Front. She was appointed Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In her short 8-month stint, she is credited for having opened 4 out of 5 peace talks that were stalled, and had broken the back of corruption in her agency. Upon the end of her term, she received the Order of Lakandula, Rank of Bayani as recognition for her contribution to public service and the nation.

Tristan C. Besa

Tristan Besa is an experienced Mediation Trainer and Life Coach. He completed his professional coach’s training at the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) in San Rafael, California. As Chairman of the Board of Philippine Seminars Inc., he trained thousands of individuals in self-awareness and life skills. Tris practiced mediation in the Mandaluyong Courts. He conducts private mediation services for The CoRe Group’s Center for Transformational Mediation. He has been associated with The Conflict Resolution Group Foundation, Inc. since its inception, and helped design and deliver its highly rated mediation programs to the public and private sectors. An important part of Tris’ professional experience was spent in private business as Vice-President in the finance and banking sectors, and as an entrepreneur. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, major in Economics and later his Master’s Degree in Business Management at the same university.

Dan Caballes

Dan Caballes is a full-time trainor and is also a Seminar/Workshop Presenter and Facilitator involved in giving different training modules, including the Alternative Dispute Resolution Training for the CoRe Group as well as various transformational and self-awareness seminars to couples, adolescents and individuals. He is also involved in parenting and marriage preparation advocacies. Aside from his involvement in the CoRe group, he also gives team building and leadership trainings, and is also involved in the Love Institute and the Reintegration for Care and Wholeness (RCW) Foundation. Dan is a an AB Philosophy graduate from U.P. Diliman and, along with his wife Nabelle, have been involved in the Marriage Encounter movement for the past 18 years and have been serving as presenting couple for more than 15 of them. They have 3 kids, all of whom are in college or graduate level. Their eldest is an intern and will graduate from medical school in 2011, their second is in his first year of medical school and their youngest is in her third year of nursing.

Patrica S. Castillo

Armed with attitude and style, Patricia S. Castillo made it far in the music and fashion industry, holding posts in management, production and consultancy particularly in label and entertainment companies such as Wall City Entertainment, Viva Music Group and John Robert Powers. A professional singer since the 70's and a producer in the 90's, she became a recipient of Metropop and Catholic Mass Media awards as well as Katha and Awit Awards respectively. Eventually, she joined the CoRe Group as one of the facilitators for the ADR classsroom training after undergoing professional mediation training under Batch 2 of 2006.