Dr. J. Prospero “Popoy” de Vera III is the Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Chairman of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), and Commissioner of UNESCO. Prior to his appointment to the Commission, he served as Vice President for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines from 2011-2016 and Professor of Public Administration.

As CHED Chairman, he steers the governance of all the Board of Regents/Trustees of all state universities and colleges including the University of the Philippines and Mindanao State University

As UNIFAST Chairman, he ensures the implementation of the most important social legislation of the Duterte administration – the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTE) or Free Higher Education law.

Chairman de Vera has spent the last three decades of his professional career as an administrator, legislative staff, policy expert, political adviser, and technocrat in the executive and legislative branches of government in the Philippines and the United States, including stints in the California State Legislature, the Philippine Senate, and House of Representatives.

He is a product of the public school system and earned his Bachelor of Arts (History/Political Science), and his Doctorate degree in Public Administration at UP. He has a Master of Arts degree (Social Sciences/Political Science) from De La Salle University.

Dr. de Vera steered the higher education system during the COVID19 pandemic by working with the education stakeholders in adopting a flexible learning system and ensuring the inclusion of higher education issues at the highest levels of government as a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).