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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Banking & Finance devider Diokno takes last Monetary Board slot

Diokno takes last Monetary Board slot

Published Jan 16, 2024 08:47 am

Former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno is back at the BSP as a full-term member of the Monetary Board, the central bank's policy-making body.

This was the first time, in the history of the BSP, that a former governor and chairman of the Monetary Board has returned to the BSP in an official capacity.

Diokno’s last post was Secretary of the Department of Finance (DOF). He was BSP chief longer than he was DOF head, having spent three years as governor and less than two years as finance secretary.

The BSP governorship is a fixed six-year term. When Diokno was appointed in 2019, he took over the remaining term of the late Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. who passed away after a long illness on Feb. 23, 2019.

As DOF secretary, Diokno was ex-officio Monetary Board member from mid-2022 until this month. 

In a BSP statement Tuesday, Jan. 16, the central bank said Diokno has been appointed as a full-time member of the Monetary Board for a six-year term effective Jan. 15.

“MBM (Monetary Board Member) Diokno continues his service at the MB after chairing it as BSP Governor from March 2019 to June 2022 and representing the government sector as an ex-officio MBM when he was Finance Secretary from July 2022 to January 2024. He completes the MB which has seven members,” said the BSP.

The seven-member Monetary Board is headed by BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr. as chairman. The other members are V. Bruce J. Tolentino, Anita Linda R. Aquino, Romeo L. Bernardo, Rosalia V. De Leon, and a member of the cabinet designated by the sitting President of the Philippines. The ex-officio Monetary Board member is usually the DOF chief. 

In 2022, London-based publication The Banker recognized Diokno as “Global Central Banker of the Year” after he “effectively steered the country’s financial system through the pandemic,” said the BSP.

“Meanwhile, as Finance Secretary, he led the economic team toward three development goals, namely, to reduce the deficit-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio to pre-pandemic level, bring down poverty incidence to single-digits, and achieve upper-middle-income status by the end of the current administration in 2028,” added the BSP.

Before joining the BSP in March 2019, he was the budget secretary of the Duterte government from 2016 to 2019. He was also budget undersecretary under two other administrations.

Diokno is a Professor Emeritus of the University of the Philippines, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in public administration and master’s degrees in public administration and economics. In 2017, the University conferred him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

He also holds a PhD in Economics from Syracuse University in New York and a Master of Arts in Political Economy degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.  

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