"My destiny is with the DSWD…I knew this was so from the moment I started working with the then Social Welfare Administration (SWA) as a relief grantee more than 40 years ago," thus states newly-appointed Social Welfare and Development Acting Secretary Celia Capadocia-Yangco.

President Arroyo has recently designated Undersecretary Celia Capadocia-Yangco as Acting Secretary of the DSWD replacing Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral who took the Department of Health portfolio.

As she takes on the helm of the DSWD, Acting Secretary Yangco brings with her  40 years of excellent public service to propel the DSWD to greater heights.

Recently, while still the Undersecretary for Operations and Capacity Building Group, Acting Secretary Yangco added another milestone in her dedicated years in government  when she was chosen as one of the outstanding alumni of the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), University of the Philippines, where she completed her Master of Public Administration as a DSWD and Civil Service Commission (CSC) scholar in 1977. 

In a book published by the NCPAG, UP as tribute to their outstanding alumni, Acting Secretary Yangco is "considered as among the country's few experts on disaster management. Utilizing her formal training in this field, she efficiently directed and managed the relief and rehabilitation efforts during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in Central Luzon, Taal Volcano eruption, Marinduque mine leak, Payatas trashslide, Guinsaugon landslide, Guimaras oil spill, and emergencies spawned by a number of super typhoons."

As the Undersecretary for the Operations and Capacity Building Group (OCBG), her job entailed overseeing the operations of the 16 DSWD regional offices, the Program Management Bureau (PMB) and the Social Welfare Institutional Development Bureau (SWIDB) in the Central Office.

Acting Secretary Yangco received her LOYALTY AWARD for rendering 45 years of faithful service as a public servant during the 58th DSWD Anniversary on January 30, 2009.

According to Acting Secretary Yangco, "Loyalty in government is not just about spending years and years in service. It also requires that we, public servants, also give our best, that we be truly dedicated and committed, and that we continually hone our abilities and skills to enable us to perform our job well."

On the occasion of DSWD's 59th Anniversary celebration on January 25 to 29, 2010, Acting Secretary Yangco has this to say, "We should do our part, no matter how modest it is, so that DSWD, the agency that we love and represent, continues to be the number one agency in the Philippine bureaucracy and stays in that place hopefully, forever."  ### (DSWD-Social Marketing Service) 18 January 2010