Guillermo (Emong) Morales, retired PRIMEX Director and Executive Vice-President (EVP), passed away on 25 February 2024 at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City. He is survived by his wife, Esther, and their two children, Hannah Hazel married to Jeremy Lynn Wheeler, and John William (Jowi) married to Josephine Sto. Tomas.
Emong first joined PRIMEX as a consultant in early 1999 and, since then, was a key player and a valuable member of the PRIMEX Family. He served as Team Leader/Project Management Specialist in a series of Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded fisheries projects in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. He was PRIMEX’s Indonesia expert – he spoke fluent Bahasa Indonesia and wrote technical reports for the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) in Bahasa Indonesia. Emong was elected to the PRIMEX Board of Directors in 2012 and served as Executive Vice President from 2011 until his retirement in 2019.
Emong’s earlier years were spent in public service. In May 1978, after graduating from the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UP-SE) in April 1978, he joined the Planning Department of the Philippine Fisheries Development Agency (PFDA) as Economic Researcher. He later served as Project Manager of the ADB loan-funded Northern Palawan Fisheries Development Project (NPFDP) (1983-1989), where he supervised the implementation of the various aspects of the project, including the construction of the fish harbor and other post-harvest infrastructure support facilities. From 1989-1992, he was designated by the Department of Agriculture (DA) as Program Director of the ADB-assisted Fisheries Sector Project (FSP), the first major ADB investment in the Philippine fisheries sector, which became the precursor of similar ADB initiatives in the region. In March 1992, he was named Director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the youngest ever appointed to that post. During his term, he played a key role in the drafting of the comprehensive Fisheries Code to provide the legal framework for the country’s fisheries development and management and set policy directions for sustainable fisheries resource utilization.
During his term, he played a key role in the drafting of the comprehensive Fisheries Code to provide the legal framework for the country’s fisheries development and management and set policy directions for sustainable fisheries resource utilization.“
In 1995, he decided to join the private sector after suffering a heart attack while serving with BFAR. He was hired by a large Indonesian company engaged in integrated aquaculture to head the Corporate Management Staff of their shrimp hatchery operations in Sumatra, Indonesia. After almost three years in that post, he joined PRIMEX as a consultant in early 1999 and, since then, served as Project Management Specialist/Team Leader for two major ADB loan-funded projects in Indonesia: the Coastal Community Development and Fisheries Resource Management (COFISH) Project (1998-2005) and the Second Coral Reef Management and Rehabilitation Project (COREMAP II) (2005-2011). He also served as Team Leader/Project Management Specialist of the ADB Regional Technical Assistance for the Coastal and Marine Resources Management Project in the Coral Triangle–Southeast Asia (2012-2017), which covered Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Emong graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the UP School of Economics in Diliman, Quezon City in 1978. He was the Recipient of the Gerry P. Sicat Award in Economics for his undergraduate thesis on Post-project Economic Evaluation of the Navotas Fishing Port and Fish Market. In 2011, he attended the Ninth Applied Master of Business Administration (AMBA) Program at the Executive Development Academy (EDA) in Manila.