President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is one step closer to completing his Cabinet after he named Raphael Lotilla as his Energy Secretary, Malacañang announced.
This is not Lotilla's first time leading the agency. He was the Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) under the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2005 to 2007.
Before that, he was President of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM). PSALM is the government corporation tasked with managing the privatization of generation assets, independent power producer (IPP) contracts, and other non-power assets, including managing financial obligations and stranded contract costs of the state-owned National Power Corporation (NPC).
He was also Deputy Director-General of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) from 1996 to 2004. During this time, he was designated as National Coordinator of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development, where he pushed measures supportive of clean technologies and sustainable livelihoods, among other sustainable development advocacies.
He is a law professor at the University of the Philippines (UP), where he graduated with his Bachelor of Laws. He also served as UP's Vice-President for Public Affairs in 1991 and as Director of the Institute of International Legal Studies of the UP Law Center from 1989 to 1996.
He obtained his Master of Laws from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Lotilla also served as the supervising official of the secretariat of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), the advisory and consultative body to the Philippine President and the Legislature. He was sought to help in crafting the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
In 2012, Lotilla was nominated to be the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but eventually declined, saying the tradition of appointing the leader of the High Court according to seniority should be restored.
Before joining the government, Lotilla served as a legal consultant to the Senate and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.