Malacañang names Capongcol, Marasigan as new DOE undersecretaries
The Office of the President (OP) has issued the appointments of two new undersecretaries at the Department of Energy (DOE), primarily naming Mylene C. Capongcol and Mario C. Marasigan to the new assignments in the agency, Manila Bulletin has learned.
Both have been promoted from their ranks as assistant secretaries of the department. They had risen organically from the ranks.
Prior to this new role, Capongcol was the assistant secretary overseeing the renewable energy (RE) sector, while Marasigan was the one in-charge of the electric power industry.
In the appointment papers released by Malacañang dated July 18, which was addressed to Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin, it was stipulated that Capongcol will be taking the post from Jesusito H. Sulit, while Marasigan will assume the role previously assigned to Jesus Cristino P. Posadas, who was senior energy undersecretary under the Duterte administration.
Across administrations, Capongcol was director of the Electric Power Industry Management Bureau (EPIMB), especially during the transition of deregulation of the power sector.
She was also in that role when the department was at the critical phases of resolving the power crisis problem in Mindanao during the Aquino administration.
As for Marasigan, he was formerly director of the Renewable Energy Management Bureau (REMB) at the time when the sector was at its rollout phase of RE projects incentivized by feed-in-tariff (FIT).
In the current administration, the two officials shifted roles in their assistant secretary designations—with Capongcol keeping eye on the RE industry, while Marasigan was the one designated to look after the power sector.
Both of the DOE officials replaced by Capongcol and Marasigan were from the past administrations, and there was no definitive word yet from the OP if any of the current energy officials will be booted out from service.
Currently, the undersecretary roles given to Capongcol and Marasigan have been the functions held by Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara.
There are also talks in the industry that other appointments will be issued in the coming days, including the replacements of Capongcol and Marasigan as assistant secretaries.