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The Philippines
Pre-Jury

​A pre-jury of more than 30 local science education and science communication professionals from the participating countries are closely involved in the selection of the films.

In the Philippines the pre-jury in 2024 consisted of the following members:
Ruby Roan-Cristobal, Ph.D.

Dr. Cristobal is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Science Communication Department of the College of Development Communication of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), the Vice-President of Probe Media Foundation Inc., the Treasurer of the Science Communicators Philippines (SciCommPH) Inc. , and the Executive Producer and Anchor of a weekly science radio program in DZRH-MBC. She has 45 years of professional practice in the areas of STEM education and promotion, development communication, science communication and science communication research, S&T human resources research, interactive science center development, multimedia production, public relations, project development and management, IT management, science center development, exhibit planning and design, educational television and radio production, social media campaigns, corporate audio-visual production.

She worked at the Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST- SEI) as the Chief Science Research Specialist of the S&T Manpower Education Research and Promotions Division.

She advocates science communication and STEM education through mass media, particularly through the production of educational programs on radio, television, and social media. In line with this, she has served as the Science and Production Consultant of the ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. in producing the longest-running local science educational program for children, “Sine’skwela”.

She obtained advanced degrees in science and communication, namely: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Communication from the University of the Philippines Diliman; Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Development Communication from the UP Open University; and a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Biology and graduate units in Environmental Biology from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

She was an Australia Award Fellow in STEM Education at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane in 2014.Dr. Cristobal has been serving as part of the local jury for SFF Philippines since 2010, and also served as a member of the panel of international jury for SFF in 2022.

Dr. Ruby R. Cristobal

Chief Science Research Specialist Science Education Institute Department of Science and Technology

George Vincent Gamayo

George Vincent Gamayo serves as an assistant professor at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines teaching communication and media courses. Previously, he was the supervising producer for Panahon TV, the country's first and longest-running weather program, where he produced stories on climate change and disaster preparedness that received several awards. He also wrote Project DINA (Disaster Information for Nationwide Awareness), a government initiative that provides local governments and schools with audio-visual presentations on how to cope with environmental hazards. In 2018, the Universal Peace Federation recognized him as a Youth Ambassador for Sustainable Peace. A scholar of the government, Mr. Gamayo earned his master's degree in crisis and disaster risk management in 2019 with high distinction. Also that year, he was selected as a fellow of the Asian Broadcasting Union to represent the Philippines at a disaster and environmental reporting training workshop for journalists in the Asia-Pacific region. His current studies are being undertaken as a scholar of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Philippines at the Academy of Political Management. His research interests include urban poor communities, indigenous peoples, and communicative discourses on HIV/AIDS, disaster risk, and climate change.

Science Film Festival - Pre-Jury - Philippines: Peachie Dioquino-Valera

Assistant professor at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Joseph V. Gutierrez

Joseph is currently the Supervising Science Research Specialist at the Space Education and Scholarship Division of the Philippine Space Agency. He has also worked at the Department of Education in various capacities: as a Science Teacher, Science Department Head and as a Supervising Education Program Specialist. He finished his bachelor’s degree from Adamson University, and MST-Physics from the University of Wyoming on a Fulbright Graduate Student Scholarship. He also participated in the 2009 International Leaders in Education Program at Montana State University-Bozeman.

While at DepEd, he led the team which developed the Science Shaping Paper and the MATATAG Science Curriculum.

He owns several small telescopes which he uses to propagate community-based astronomy education.

Science Film Festival - Pre-Jury - Philippines: Joseph V. Gutierrez

Supervising Education Program Specialist Bureau of Curriculum Development Department of Education