 Edgardo Angara convened a committee to brainstorm the idea of establishing a national rice research center.The committee was composed of Domingo M. Lantican, vice chancellor for administration of UP Los Baños; Ricardo M. Lantican, UPLB director for research; Domingo F. Panganiban, deputy minister of Agriculture and Food; Ramon Valmayor, executive director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development; Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, IRRI director general; and Manuel de Leon, staff director of the National Economic and Development Authority.The proposal for the establishment of PhilRice was submitted to then Pres.