Malacañang revealed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has recently appointed 12 individuals, mostly familiar names, to different government posts, including ambassadors and high-ranking positions in top agencies.
In a statement, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the President made the appointments over the week, days before he delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Raphael Lotilla is officially back as the Department of Energy Secretary (DOE). Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson J. Prospero de Vera III retains his post in the commission. Meanwhile, Former Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III is now an undersecretary at the Department of Education.
Marcos also named former Palawan First District Representative Franz Alvarez to the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) Exploration Corporation. He will serve as the agency's acting president, chief executive officer (CEO), and board member.
Benny Antiporda is now the acting administrator and a board member at the National Irrigation Administration (NIA). Antiporda, a former Environment Undersecretary under the Duterte administration, became a senior deputy administrator at the NIA in February this year.
LOOK: Palace lists down new appointments made by President Bongbong Marcos. @manilabulletin pic.twitter.com/p7IjOzQ4TS
— Argyll Cyrus Geducos (@argyllcyrus_MB) July 23, 2022
Former Tarlac First District Representative Monica Prieto-Teodoro, the wife of former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, is back as the Special Envoy of the President to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She was the country's special envoy to UNICEF from 2017 to 2018.
Seasoned diplomat Philippe Jones Lhuiller retains his post as the country's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain, including the Canary Islands. Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) board member Pedro Laylo is the new Philippine Ambassador to Israel.
The President reappointed Rosalia de Leon as the Treasurer of the Philippines. As national treasurer, she will direct the formulation of policies on borrowing, investment, and capital market development. She will handle the formulation of adequate operations guidelines for fiscal and financial policies.
Retired Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat is now the executive director and national secretariat head of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), an office that became controversial during the previous administration because of the red-tagging made by its officials. Before this, Salamat was a board member at the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).
President Marcos also named retired Sandiganbayan Justice Alex Quiroz as Chairman Governance Commission for Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations. He also named Ferdinand Sevilla the President of the Philippine Public Safety College under the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).