My collaboration with IBM began long before quantum computing entered the national vocabulary. It started in 2009, in Bacolod City, at a time when the Philippine countryside was only beginning to imagine its place in the global digital economy. Looking back now, that moment marked the beginning of a long, meaningful entanglement with IBM — one that has stretched across cities, institutions, continents, and now, across the emerging quantum landscape.

XceleRate 2009: Growing Skills, Growing People

Here is the Poster and Press Release issued for the program in 2009:

10 IBM Corporation volunteers are in Bacolod for a month to share latest trends and businesses solutions related to information technology, web marketing, effective proposals, eCommerce, business
process management and outsourcing.

The training is dubbed as XceleRate 2009, a three-part project to provide training and education on a variety of business and information technology (IT) subjects initiated  by the Bacolod-Negros
Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT), Inc. chaired by Bacolod Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue with the Australian Business Volunteers.

XceleRate 2009 – Student Development Seminar was held at the University of St. La Salle Bacolod last November 3 designed for college and university students seeking to develop highly demanded
skills for the future.

The business development seminar was held last Oct. 23 at Circle Inn Hotel and the Faculty Development Seminar was held last October 27 at West Negros University.

Jocelle Batapa-Sigue believes that Bacolod can really sustain its success in the outsourcing industry with aggressive programs to enhance the educational system in place to generate a large and competent human resource pool to respond to industry demands.

Batapa-Sigue, challenged the participants to demand responsive and innovative governance and use of public funds from leaders of government in Bacolod and Negros Occidental and to help ensure that
addressing educational and skills development is an enlightened priority and not only a perfunctory function on the part of government leaders.

On the part of BNEFIT, Batapa-Sigue said they will continue to initiate programs in partnership with IBM and other stakeholders to speed up the process of improving the business landscape of the city
through more human capital development programs.

Duke Chang, Senior Strategist, of IBM USA discussed Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) as well as the challenges facing businesses today and how the discipline of BPM can help local businessmen increase efficiency. He also stressed the strategic importance of BPO and implications for Bacolod City.

Jaydip Mukherjee, Growth Market Sales of IBM India discussed e-commerce solutions for business. Creating an Effective Proposal was handled by Jaana Happonen, Bid Manager, IBM Finland.

Trends in Software Development was handled by Alina Glodowski, Center for Advanced Studies Coordinator of IBM Russia. She will share latest updates in software development including cloud computing, Agile, LEAN, Multi-core and multi-threading, virtualization, and Software as a Service (SaaS).

What made Xcelerate extraordinary was the ten IBM volunteers who lived in Bacolod for an entire month. They brought with them the latest thinking in information technology, web marketing, effective business proposals, eCommerce, business process management, and outsourcing. Their energy and expertise helped ignite a culture of learning and innovation in a city ready to take its place in the ICT landscape.

Working together for NICP’s Vision of Empowering the Countryside

In 2010 or the following year, the partnership expanded beyond Bacolod. Sharing a common vision of using ICT to strengthen the Philippine economy, IBM Philippines and the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) forged a formal partnership to mount the 3rd National ICT Summit in Bacolod on November 25–26, 2009. I signed the agreement with IBM Philippines Country General Manager James Velasquez, surrounded by BNEFIT officers who had worked tirelessly to elevate the city’s ICT agenda.

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IBM’s commitment was unmistakable. A full team of experts flew in to lead discussions on smarter cities, academic innovation, business continuity, cloud computing, digital citizen experiences, and developer communities. Their presence helped shape the national conversation on ICT development at a time when the Philippines was still defining its regional digital strategy. For many local leaders, it was the first time they saw global technology thought leadership up close — and it left a lasting imprint.

My Visit to the IBM Headquarters at The Research Triangke

Three years later, in 2012 as part of my Eisenhower Fellowships, the entanglement took on a global dimension. During my visit to the Research Triangle in North Carolina, I was welcomed warmly by IBM leaders, including my good friend Duke Chang who was part of Excelerate in 2009, along with several Filipino IBMers whose excellence made me proud. That visit opened a window into IBM’s research culture and affirmed that Filipino talent was contributing meaningfully to global innovation. It also strengthened my resolve to bring world‑class opportunities and knowledge back home.

I will never forget the lessons from my visit the The Research Triange.

Partnering for Quantum Readiness with QCSP and IBM

Seventeen years after Xcelerate, the entanglement continues — this time in the frontier field of quantum computing. Over the past two days, five IBMers from different parts of the world joined us through the Quantum Computing Society of the Philippines (QCSP) to unpack insights on quantum systems, national readiness, workforce development, and quantum‑safe security. Their clarity, generosity, and depth echoed the same spirit IBM brought to Bacolod in 2009: a commitment to empower, to educate, and to build ecosystems.

This engagement aligns with my participation in the Quantum Readiness Workshop: Computing, Workforce, and Quantum‑Safe Security, held on April 23–24, 2026 at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP). The two‑day workshop brought together government, academia, and industry to prepare the Philippines for the quantum era — from talent pipelines to cybersecurity frameworks. It felt like a natural continuation of the journey that began in 2009: building readiness, building people, building the future.

The Quantum Readiness Workshop: Computing, Workforce & Quantum-Safe Security gathered an exceptional group of speakers whose insights helped frame one important truth: quantum is no longer a distant concept, but a strategic issue that demands early action. Dr. Jan-Rainer Lahmann of IBM Quantum opened the learning journey with a session on Quantum Computing Fundamentals, laying down the science behind this emerging field. This was followed by Umut Cikla of IBM Quantum Safe Research, who discussed the Quantum-Safe Landscape Overview, and Dr. Efstathia Katsigianni of IBM Quantum, who deepened the conversation through Post-Quantum Cryptography and Case Studies. In the afternoon, Rizwan Hussain, Head of IBM Quantum Sales for APAC & Japan, spoke on Building a National Quantum Ecosystem and the industry implications and priority use cases, while Julian SK Tan, IBM Quantum Business Development Executive for ASEAN and India, highlighted partnerships, roadmap, and workforce development needed to support a quantum-ready future. Providing the Philippine science and policy context, Dr. Eric Galapon of UP Diliman presented the State of the National Quantum S&T Roadmap, and the day culminated in a plenary dialogue led by Atty. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue and Engr. Dylan Josh Lopez of QCSP on Strategic Risks and National Readiness. Together, the workshop was a powerful reminder that preparing for the quantum era will require not only technical knowledge, but also strong ecosystems, responsive governance, trusted security frameworks, and a workforce ready to lead in a rapidly changing world.

Across nearly two decades, the pattern is unmistakable. IBM has been present at every major inflection point of my ICT journey — from grassroots capacity building, to national ICT policy, to global research exposure, and now to quantum computing. The relationship has evolved with technology, geography, and time, but the thread has remained unbroken.

Seventeen years later, I remain grateful for every IBM colleague — Filipino or global — who has crossed my path. Our journeys have intertwined across cities, conferences, continents, and now across quantum frontiers. And if quantum physics has taught us anything, it is this: when two systems become entangled, distance and time no longer separate them. They evolve together.

My journey with IBM has been exactly that — a 17-year partnership across cities, institutions, and frontiers, shaping not only my work, but the future I continue to build: a Philippines that does not merely adopt innovation, but creates it where it matters most. From skills development to quantum horizons, this collaboration reminds me that the true frontier is not only in global centers of power, but in our countryside — in classrooms, communities, and local economies waiting to be unlocked.

The real promise of innovation is not speed, but reach; not prestige, but participation. It is about bringing opportunity closer to every Filipino, turning distance into access, and talent into transformation. And so the work continues — to build a nation where innovation carries hope, where no community is left behind, and where the future is not only advanced, but shared. It is time for the Philippines to take a quantum leap.