Marcos chooses Felipe Medalla as BSP gov, Benjamin Diokno as DOF chief

President-elect Ferdinand, “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., declared on Thursday that Governor Benjamin Diokno of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will lead the Department of Finance under his administration.

Marcos also announced that Felipe Medalla would succeed Diokno in the BSP at a news conference.

Diokno became the BSP governor in March 2019, succeeding the late Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr.

Diokno served as secretary of the Department of Budget and Management under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration before joining the BSP.

During the Aquino administration, Diokno helped design several significant reforms, such as the 1986 Tax Reform Program, which simplified income tax and introduced the value-added tax (VAT) and the 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines.

Diokno is a Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines-School Diliman’s of Economics. He was the Philippine Senate’s fiscal adviser. He was also Chairman and CEO of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and Chairman of the Local Water Utilities Administration.

In his third term as Budget Secretary, Diokno plans to follow an expansionary fiscal policy to pay for investments in human capital and public infrastructure development.

Marcos chooses Felipe Medalla as BSP gov, Benjamin Diokno as DOF chief

During the Estrada administration, Diokno came up with and put several reforms to make government services more open and efficient. The “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) policy, which is a more straightforward way to release funds from the General Appropriations Act, was the first significant change (GAA).

Since July 2011, Medalla has been a member of the Monetary Board. Former President Benigno Aquino III first appointed him, and Duterte gave him a second term in July 2017.

Medalla served as head of the School of Economics at the University of the Philippines. He received his doctorate in economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1983. His dissertation, titled “Industrial Location in the Philippines,” demonstrated the coherence of a mix of Weberian and Loschian concepts in the placement of industries in the Philippines.

During the administration of former President Joseph Estrada, Medalla also served as secretary of socioeconomic planning and director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority from 1998 to 2001.