About Us

About WPS

WPS (We Protect our Seas) is a non-government, nonprofit, and nonpartisan volunteer-based organization duly registered with the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission. WPS, Inc. seeks to advance principled approaches to resolving disputes in the West Philippine Sea and the broader South China Sea through rigorous research and dialogues involving academia, public policy, military, and industry throughout Southeast Asia and beyond.

WPS is the coordinating organization of The Manila Dialogue on the South China Sea and Dialogue on ASEAN Maritime Security, two high profile track 1.5 processes that promote a free, open, secure and rules-based maritime order in the region.

Contact Us

Mailing Address:​

Unit 505, 5th Floor, Regus Adriatico Square, Malate, Manila, 1004, Philippines

Jeffrey Ordaniel, Ph.D.

President & CEO, WPS
jeffrey@wps-ph.org
Designated contact for inquiries and correspondence about partnership and cooperation (English, Tagalog)

Quan N. Tran

Senior Program Manager, WPS
quan@wps-ph.org
Designated contact for inquiries about Track 1.5 Conferences - Dialogue on ASEAN Maritime Security, and The Manila Dialogue on the South China Sea (English, Vietnamese, Japanese)

Michal Aurstad

Program Manager, WPS
michal@maritimeindex.org
Designated contact for inquiries about Track 1.5 Conferences - Dialogue on ASEAN Maritime Security, and The Manila Dialogue on the South China Sea (English, Norwegian)

Katrina Tiu

Program Associate, WPS
katrina@wps-ph.org
Designated contact for inquiries about local events and awareness-raising events (English, Tagalog)

Mary Laurice Guiling

Program Associate, WPS
marylaurice@wps-ph.org
Designated contact for inquiries about local events and awareness-raising events (English, Tagalog)

Fellow

Bic Tran, Ph.D.

Nonresident Fellow for Strategic Studies
Dr. Bich Tran (pronounced as Bic Trahn) is a senior fellow at Verve Research and an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She has been selected to join the Young Strategists Forum 2025 and International Strategy Forum 2024. Her research interests include grand strategy, maritime security, cybersecurity, and other issues at the intersection between geopolitics and technology.

Abe Woo, Ph.D.

Nonresident Fellow for Marine Environmental Research
Dr Abe Woo received his PhD in Natural History Sciences from Hokkaido University. His interest of study includes systematics, taxonomy, and diversity study of marine invertebrates, focusing on the group Echinoderms. Since 2009, he has been actively uncovering the marine biodiversity and systematics of sea cucumbers across the region. He is currently serving as a senior lecturer in the Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), Universiti Sains Malaysia where he is also actively leading several marine biodiversity research in the Southeast Asian region that includes several taxa of marine invertebrate. At the global front, he is a serving in several UN Decade of Ocean Science Program ECOP co-chairs and also an active contributor to the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) programmes.
Dr Woo recently graduated from the Advanced Masters in Sustainable Blue Economy from Unviersity of Trieste, Italy that focuses on science diplomacy through management and development of regional blue economy plans. He is now involved in formulating Malaysia's Blue Economy Blueprint commissioned by the government

Disclaimers

Statements made and views expressed in curated articles and research papers are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their respective organizations and affiliations.