Ligaya Acosta, PhD
Dr. Ligaya Acosta is the regional director of Asia and Oceania at Human Life International. She worked as a loyal government employee for the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) for more than 28 years and was an avid promoter of contraceptives and a firm believer in population control. For more than 15 years, she also served as Information-Education and Communication (IEC) Manager and as a trainer for AIDS/STDs for the same office, actively advocating the use of condoms – even to high school students. With a Doctorate in Management, and Bachelor Degrees in Law and Social Work, she was well qualified for her high government post.
Her life was to change, however, after she was appointed by the government as Program Manager to oversee Natural Family Planning in the Philippines in early 2004. During her tenure with this program, she discovered the deadly deception of the international pro-death propaganda. To verify the authenticity of what she began to learn, she did extensive research that included acquiring dramatic first-hand testimonies of frontline public health workers (midwives, nurses, and doctors), and from the victims themselves. After nearly 3 decades as an avid promoter of contraceptives and population control, Dr. Acosta made a 180-degree turn and became a staunch pro-life advocate and activist.
After her amazing conversion in 2004 (which she attributes in part to the reference materials that HLI provided her), Dr. Acosta undertook impassioned work to defend human life, faith, marriage and the family, and to expose the deadly deception of the culture of death that she knew all too well. She left her job and high-paying consultancies in February 2005, to make an explosive exposé which caught national attention and occupied prominent space in Philippine media for a good period of time.
Dr. Acosta, is a multi-awarded individual, including receipt of the “Most Outstanding Public Servant in the field of Public Information” achieved while still in government service and, interestingly, a Certificate of Commendation signed by the Secretary of Health, the Philippine Directors of USAID and Helen Keller International (HKI) in “recognition of her commitment and dedication” for a joint DOH-USAID-HKI project! In February 2006 her Archdiocese awarded her a Plaque of Recognition “in grateful recognition for invaluable services rendered in defense, protection and promotion of human life in all its stages, from conception to natural death, and in upholding the sanctity of human sexuality even at the expense of one’s career and financial gain.”
In 2007, Dr. Acosta joined the HLI team, and since then she has done extensive activism work all over the Asian region. She resides in the Philippines.