Dr. Jose V. Camacho Jr.: Pride of Bayambang and Pangasinan

 

 

Dr. Jose V. Camacho Jr.: Pride of Bayambang, Pride of Pangasinan

A son of Bayambang town and the province of Pangasinan is making history once again at one of the country’s leading universities.

Dr. Jose “Dong” DV. Camacho Jr., a Bayambangueño is set to serve a third term as Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) following the consensus reached by the UP Board of Regents on September 24, 2026.

The new term carries a historic distinction: according to UPLB, Camacho is the first Chancellor in the university’s history to serve three terms. Chancellors in the UP System generally serve two terms, while a third term may be granted only in what the university describes as “highly exceptional cases.”

For Bayambang, however, Camacho’s story is about more than a historic university appointment. It is the story of a homegrown educator and scholar whose academic journey began in Bayambang and whose work has continued to connect higher education with the culture and heritage of Pangasinan.

Being the son of educators appears to have shaped his own path in education. Camacho is the son of the late Dr. Jose Gomez Camacho Sr., CESO III, a retired DepEd Director, and the late Dr. Basilisa de Vera Camacho, a retired university professor of Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus. He is married to ___, with whom he has ___ children. He is also the younger brother of Sangguniang Bayan ng Bayambang Secretary Joel V. Camacho. Other siblings who have made a name for themselves in their own chosen fields are Joana, an Economics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University and Jessica, a District Nurse in DepEd-Bayambang.

His academic journey began at the Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus Laboratory School, where he was a consistent honor student. After graduating from high school at Sual National High School, he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Economics at UPLB, where he received recognition for Best Thesis in Economics.

He continued his studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman, earning a Master of Arts in Economics, History and Political Economy. He later completed a Master of Arts in Economics of Development at Erasmus University’s International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands.

His academic journey eventually took him to Japan, where he earned his Doctor of Economics degree from Kyoto University, specializing in Economics of Education, Labor, and Human Resource Economics.

Before becoming Chancellor, Camacho served as Dean of the UPLB Graduate School and as a professor at the College of Economics and Management. His academic career has included numerous appointments as visiting scholar, research grants, and awards in the Philippines and abroad.

He is also an author and co-author of research articles and textbooks, contributing to scholarship in economics, education, labor, and human resource development.

as UPLB Chancellor, among his major accomplishments are a digitalization project in 2024, in which he launched the pilot Academic Management Information System (AMIS) and improved the digital management of academic processes; "future-proofing" UPLB by strengthening institutional preparedness and resilience and focusing on continuity of university services; a housing project in 2026 which involved the launching of the Expanded 4PH-UPLB rental housing project; the construction of two five-story buildings targeting around 800 beneficiaries; sustainable mobility in 2024 through the Tipaklong shared e-mobility project and support of campus transportation and educational tours through PASEO; and academic development through his support of graduate education and research partnerships.

Under his watch, UPLB became "the first public university in the country to receive the ASEAN University Network–Quality Assurance Institutional Assessment Certification" and launched the country's first Agricultural Genomics Research Center in partnership with South Korea’s Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the International Rice Research Institute "to strengthen the country’s agricultural genomics capabilities."

But among his many academic accomplishments, one contribution has a particularly meaningful connection to his home province. Camacho was among the founders of the Center for Pangasinan Studies, an institution dedicated to research and the preservation and promotion of Pangasinan’s history, culture, language, and heritage. Through the Center, his work has reached beyond the university and into communities seeking to better understand and document their own cultural identity. One beneficiary of this work is the Bayambang Culture Mapping Project, which received technical assistance from the Center for Pangasinan Studies.

That connection is significant. Culture mapping is, at its heart, an effort to identify, document, and preserve the stories, traditions, practices, places, people, and knowledge that give a community its identity. For a town like Bayambang—with its long history and rich Pangasinan heritage—such work helps ensure that local knowledge does not simply remain in the memories of the older generation, but is documented and passed on.

Chancellor Camacho has also extended help in other areas, particularly in the transfer of knowledge and technology in the area of agriculture and biotechnology, and intends to lend a hand as well in the field of bamboo forestry and other local endeavors requiring technical expertise.

In this way, Camacho’s contribution to Pangasinan is not confined to the lecture halls and research centers of UPLB. His academic work has also helped create pathways through which communities such as Bayambang can study and preserve their own heritage.

It is only fitting that in the year 2022, the local government of Bayambang bestowed upon him its highest accolade, the Matalunggaring Award.

From a young honor student in Bayambang to an economist educated in the Philippines, Europe, and Japan; from professor and researcher to graduate school dean; and now to a historic third term as UPLB Chancellor, Camacho’s journey represents a remarkable academic trajectory.

Yet perhaps one of the most fitting parts of his story is that, despite the breadth of his academic career, his work continues to have a connection to the place where it all began.