Two potential Cabinet members of presumptive President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso for the Department of Finance and Engr. Manuel “Manny” Bonoan for the Department of Public Works, who became a secretary of DPWH for 5 months in 2007 under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Two potential Cabinet members of the administration of presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso for the Department of Finance and Engr. Manuel “Manny” Bonoan for the Department of Public Works and Highways, according to sources from the grapevine.
Marcos Jr. is under pressure to name at least his economic team immediately so that investor confidence would be regained since most investors are now just waiting for his new appointees to crop up before they could decide to bring their money back.
Veloso, president and chief executive officer of the Philippine National Bank, is one of the trop treasury traders in the 1990s to 2000s. At 55, he was beginning his “apostolic duties” even as he guided the PNB through the pandemic.
Veloso is the President and CEO of Philippine National Bank (PNB) and the President of the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP). Veloso has more than 30 years of banking and capital markets experience, garnering various industry recognitions throughout his career.
He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in commerce major in marketing management from De La Salle University in 1986.
After graduating from DLSU in September 1986, his first job was as management trainee with Urban Bank and two months later he was under the mentorship of Arsenio Bartolome III, president of PNB from 1994 to 1997.He learned the end-to-end banking training from PNB where he learned branch operations, treasury and credit.
He even had a stint as head of the outdoor advertising for the bank and recounts his success in securing cheap outdoor billboard advertising space utilizing vacant government property along Quezon Boulevard.
He thought he would have a career in credit but an opening arose in the treasury department, which was never part of his plans because all he knew about banking was deposit-taking, lending but nothing about treasury.
His first job in Urban Banks’s treasury department, then headed by Elmer Villegas involved brokering bonds, but the bank also had a budget to do cross-selling of various bank products, although cross-selling at that time was not yet the trend.
Urban Bank set the trend as they were already offering corporate loans, housing loans, credit cards, deposits, and a whole slew of other banking products aside from treasury brokering of government securities. In his first week with the treasury department, Wick was already able to meet his month’s quota and “from there on I enjoyed doing it,” he told the Star in November 2021.
Wick’s early beginnings with Urban Bank already showed his drive and determination to succeed. He recalls that “my shoes would literally get worn out” from the amount of walking that he did as he individually visited potential clients in Salcedo and Legaspi Village area.
His persistence in visiting potential Chinese banks bore fruit when one day, they gave him a supply of short-term Treasury bills.
At that time, Wicks explains, the longest tenor for T-bills was only one-year or 364-days, so they would sell their one-year bill when it is 30 to 60-days so they could book a capital or trading gain and reinstate it again by buying back the one-year bill. Fortunately foreign banks, which had high networth clients were scouting for 30 to 60 day trades.
He recalled that when he and his then unit head, Alberto Emilio “Joey” Roxas (who eventually became president of China Savings Bank), would drive back from Binondo, crossing the Jones Bridge with a stack of bearer T-bill certificates rustling in the wind at the back seat of their aircon-less vehicle, he would ask Joey what if these papers would be flown out of the car and into the river, to which Joey answered you jump out of the car.
His diligence in visiting and getting to know hisChinese financial clients eventually caught the eye of Dionisio Ong of Asia¬Trust, who eventually offered Wick in May 1988 a much higher salary at a time when he was already married and starting a young family.
From a junior manager or a supervisor in Urban Bank, Wick was promoted to manager of AsiaTrust’s treasury department. Ong was a task master and demanded a strong working ethic from his staff, Wick points out.
After a year with AsiaTrust, Wick accepted Citibank, and he was scouted by Bobby Reyes and introduced to Citibank’s then treasury head Vic Valdepenas. There he stayed from 1989 to 1993 as fixed income portfolio manager. At Citibank, he honed his treasury and trading skills and this started his ascent in the Philippine treasury market.
It was that period in his career that he had to work long hours and study hard learning about all financial and economic trends not only locally, but globally, as Citibank conducted 24-hour trading. The long hours made him miss so many important family and personal events like his birthday.
He still communicates with Vic Valdepenas, who helped him hone his skills.
In 1993, he was pirated by Citibanker, Rafael “Paeng” Buenaventura (later Bangko Sentral Governor) who returned to the Philippines to head the Gokongwei-led PCI Bank in 1993 to become head of domestic treasury and concurrent treasurer of PCI Capital from 1993-1994. Buenaventura introduced him to the perks of being a top banker—the private elevator, his own office and secretary and a messenger and driver.
Veloso was pirated by HSBC to head its treasury department in 1994 then in 2000 as treasurer of Asian local currency trading and head of credit derivatives for Asia Pacific until 2003 and then to treasurer and head of global market from 2003 to 2010.
By 2010, Wick was a still red-hot property for HSBC, which promoted him to managing director of HSBC Global Market based in Hong Kong and then as head of global banking market by 2012. By the time he was ready to return to Manila, he was offered to be the first Filipino president and CEO of HSBC Philippines, which he held from 2012 to 2018.
HSBC, by that time had lost its global luster following a series of money laundering scandals that first came out in 2012 and record settlements eventually forced global banking to implement cost-cutting measure in the Philippines. It was time to part ways with HSBC.
A top government regulator, however, saw the opportunity to recommend Wick to taipan Lucio Tan, who was then looking for a new head for Philippine National Bank, a post Wick decided to accept in 2018 and heads up to this day through the pandemic crisis.
He admits, with some tinge of sadness, that his long days at work caused him his first marriage and to miss out on the crucial growing up days of his children. (He has four — three of whom are now all married and professionals, with only one son still studying but likewise absorbed on living his own life.)
Wick is now spending more time with his current wife, catching up with his grown-up kids, and thoroughly enjoying his weekends doing his “apostolic duties” even as he continues to lead PNB through the rough waters of the COVID-19 pandemic that has rocked the global economy.
As he embarked on his banking career, Wick realized that his ability to connect with older people would be a big factor in gaining mentors and clients.
Engr. Manuel Bonoan
Engr. Manuel M. Bonoan, president of the operations and management companies of Skyway, NAIAX, SLEX and STAR, is being eyed to head the DPWH.
A former public works official might soon return to the government department as its next head.
Presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is reportedly considering Manuel “Manny” Bonoan to be part of his Cabinet as Public Works and Highways Secretary.
Bonoan, president and CEO of SMC Tollways, has been nominated by the Marcos screening committee to join the Cabinet.
A civil engineer, Bonoan previously served as DPWH undersecretary during the Estrada and Arroyo administrations.
He became DPWH secretary from February 1 to July 4, 2007 under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo before GMA returned Hermogenes Ebdane Jr to the post on July 4, 2007.
After securing a massive lead in the presidential polls, Marcos recently started the search for his prospective members of his Cabinet. The executive committee of his campaign team has been tapped to help vet the nominees for key government posts.
So far, two incoming Cabinet members have been identified by the Marcos camp. Presumptive Vice president Sara Duterte Carpio will head the Department of Education while former MMDA chair Benhur Abalos is expected to take the helm of the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Tags: #Cabinet, #MarcosJr., #DPWH, #DoF, #government