Fish Right Program

James Kho is the Governance and Institutional Development Specialist of the Fish Right Program. He is a lawyer with more than two decades of experience in environmental law and policy, including alternative dispute resolution processes. As technical adviser to various government agencies, Mr. Kho led the participatory development of major policies, including: Regulation of genetically modified organisms (DOST-DA-DENR-DOH-DILG JDC 2016-01); Joint Administrative Order on the seasonal closure for round scad in Northern Palawan (DA-DILG Joint Administrative Order No. 1 s. 2015); Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Wildlife Act; Revised implementing rules and regulations of the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act; Implementing rules and regulations of the Clean Water Act; Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order on Alternative Dispute Resolution. Mr. Kho graduated from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (B.S. Zoology), UP Diliman (Bachelor of Laws) and Yale Law School (Master of Laws).

Brenda Jay Angeles Mendoza is a lawyer with keen interest in environment and natural resources law and policy, mediation and conflict management, legal reform, and human rights. She has worked as a consultant with numerous institutions in government, non-government, and development organisations, where she provided both technical and training services. She used to head the Supreme Court’s Philippine Mediation Center Office. She is a member of the corps of professorial lecturers of the Philippine Judicial Academy, the training arm of the Supreme Court, and is vice-chair of its Alternative Dispute Resolution Department. She also teaches at the University of the Philippines - College of Engineering and the De La Salle University College of Law. Ms. Mendoza is a graduate of the University of the Philippines and the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. She has taken up certificate programs on environmental law and alternative dispute resolution.

Amante “Klaid” Sabangan’s expertise lies in community organizing and development, coalition building and networking, conflict resolution practice and training. Klaid’s vast knowledge and experience has allowed him to work with numerous NGOs-local and international-as a onsultant and trainer. He has served as the national consultant for the UN human settlements program in January 2004 to August 2005 where he coordinated the localization of the millennium development goals in 12 pilot cities in the Philippines. He also served as Operations Manager for a Community Driven Development Program implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. As a founding member of an organization of Mediation Practitioner, trainers, and mentors/coaches, Klaid has over 20 years of experience in training, module writing, as well as actual mediation on the ground in community resource-use conflict situations.