Orlando P. Carvajal

Orlando P. Carvajal was born in Barili, Cebu, Philippines in 1943. He earned his AB in Philosophy from the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos, Mabolo, Cebu City. He finished his Theology at St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California, U.S.A.
where he also earned a Master’s degree in Religion. In 1967 he was ordained a priest at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in Los
Angeles. As a young priest, he served as assistant pastor in the Cebu parishes of San Nicolas and Mabolo. He also taught sociology at the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos and Theology at St. Theresa’s College. His social activism started when he was appointed assistant executive secretary of the Cebu Archdiocesan Social Action Center (CASAC). He got deeper into social activism when he survived the rigors of a military safe-house after which the Mindanao-Sulu bishops took him in as executive secretary of their Mindanao-Sulu Secretariat for Social Action (MISSSA), an office he served for five years
during Martial Law. Carvy, as co-workers called him since his CASAC days, married in 1978. From 1978 to 2008 he worked for Vitarich Corporation in a number of supervisory and managerial positions. Before joining Vitarich he finished AIM’s (Asian
Institute of Management) three-month live-in Management Development Program and shortly after finished the full academics (without thesis) of Ateneo Graduate School of Business’ two-year Master in Business Administration for Senior Executives Program (MBA-SEP). He also occupied top executive positions in Vitarich’s sister companies, all of them based in Davao City before coming back to Cebu in 2000 and holding the position of vice president-general manager of Sunstar Cebu. In 2006 he started writing a regular political column for Sunstar, an avocation he still pursues at present. Outside the corporate world, Carvy managed and led several organizations. From 1977 to 1978, he was president of the Diocesan Clergy of Mindanao-Sulu. From 1997 to 1998, he served as president of the Davao Museum Foundation, Inc.
He also served as vice president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry. From 2002 to 2010 he served as president of the Philippine Federation of Married Catholic Priests (PFMCP). He is currently chairperson of FORGE (Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors), an NGO engaged mainly in community organizing.