The economic team is now almost complete, save for the Departments of Budget and Management and Transportation and Cabinet Secretary.
Finally, president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has a complete economic team that would be headed by former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno, who will now be assuming as Department of Finance Secretary.
Taking his place in the vacated BSP Governor seat is Felipe Medalla, the National Economic and Development Authority secretary of former President Estrada. He also served as dean of the UP School of Economics in 1983, earning his PhD in economics from Northwestern University in Evaston, Illinois.
In a televised presscon, Marcos Jr. said “I will be nominating our BSP president Ben Diokno for the position of Secretary of Finance. He has already agreed. We already talked about it. And he has agreed to it,” Marcos said.
He said Medalla “will take on the unexpired term [of Diokno]. The term of the present BSP president, in this case, is until July,” Marcos said. Diokno is a year short of his 6-year tenure in BSP.
Also joining Marcos’ economic team is former University of the Philippines president Alfred E. Pascual to head the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Chemistry graduate turned businessman, Pascual, was former president of UP System who made his foray into business as chairman of the Asian Institute of Management’s Master of Business Management Program. He then pursued a Master in Business Administration and took on management roles in various companies. He is a member of UP’s Upsilon Sigma Phi, a fraternity where Marcos Sr. belonged.
Post-UP, Pascual is currently president of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP). He is currently independent director at SM Investments Corporation, Megawide Construction Corp., and Concepcion Industrial Corp.
Manuel “Manny” Bonoan will go to the Department of Public Works, and is part of the economic team, Marcos said.
“He has spent almost all his professional life in the DPWH. I know him very well. So I know he will do a good job,” Marcos said.
Marcos, who was proclaimed last Wednesday, said he plans to focus on addressing economic issues, which includes rising food and fuel prices once he officially assumes the presidency next month.
“I know the economic team is critical and that is what people are looking for. I think we found the best people, who are able to look forward and to anticipate what the conditions will be in the Philippines and the rest of the world in the coming years,” Marcos said.
Marcos Jr. has yet to pick his Department of Budget and Management and Department of Transportation secretaries and the Cabinet Secretary, which traditionally had been part of the eco team.
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