DSPPP Hosts Milestone Event: Internship Orientation, Fellowship Contract Signing, and AI Governance Forum
Tuesday, 26th of May 2026, was an eventful day held @CIDS by the Data Science for Public Policy Program (DSPPP). In preparation for the June 22-26, 2026 DSPPP Bootcamp on Explainable AI for Public Policy (XAI4PP), DSPPP team started the day with an Internship Orientation attended by Ateneans, Thomasite, La Sallean, Mapuan, Bedan, and students from FEU, Adamson, TIP, Tytana, Mriam, PUP, and more joined via online. We further invited the applicant interns to attend onsite and online to witness the Ceremonial Signing of Contracts by our 2026 Research Fellows and the presentation of their research briefs on two pivotal themes: (1) AI for Corruption and (2) Designing a Legal Framework for AI Governance or AI Regulatory Frameworks in the Philippines.
Dr. DJ Darwin Bandoy, our two-term Research Fellow, presented his topic on: BahaGPT: AI-Driven Decision Framework for Flood Management Resource Allocation and Anti-Corruption Prioritization. Discussion became a heated topic as Dr. Bandoy pointed out the framework which incorporates exposure-weighted scoring that prevents the common manipulation of prioritizing politically connected but low-risk areas over genuinely vulnerable communities. The framework integrates with existing NOAH infrastructure, PAGASA climate projections, and DPWH road network data, requiring no new data collection systems. Final output from this research endeavor and from the other research fellows will be revealed on the November 10-11, 2026 National Conference on Data Science for Public Policy.
The Pakikipagkapwa Culturomics team from UPDEPP came in full attendance with the presence of Dr. Purisima Panlilio, Engr. Angela Carreon, Prof. Cristabel Tiangco, Prof. Prof. Remi de Leon, and Dr. Margarita Lavides presented their topics on Exploring the Filipino Perspective of Leadership Using Social Data. Joining via online, Mr. Eric Aggarao from UP Manila presnte their research study on Institutionalizing a Right to Explanation in the Algorithmic Targeting of Philippine Social Welfare.
The day culminated with a 4-hour webinar on: “Shaping the Blueprint: A Multi-stakeholder Forum on the Proposed AI Regulation and Development Act attended by 120 delegates from various sectors of the academe, business, civil society, media, and more.
