Duterte names new SBMA administrator

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — President Duterte has appointed a new administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

In a Dec. 21 letter, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea informed SBMA Chair Martin Diño of the appointment to the post of lawyer Wilma Eisma.

Medialdea asked Diño to notify Eisma of her appointment.

Eisma received the letter of appointment on Dec. 27. She had served as manager of the local regulatory affairs and community relations division of Philip Morris Phils. Manufacturing Inc.

Eisma replaced Roberto Garcia who was SBMA’s administrator from 2011 until his resignation in October this year.

Garcia also served as chair of the agency’s board of the directors before he was succeeded by Diño.

Diño was a former presidential aspirant who withdrew his candidacy last year and named Duterte, then a Davao City mayor, as the substitute standard bearer of PDP-Laban.

Eisma’s appointment is expected to end the leadership conflict at the agency.

Diño has been squabbling with lawyer Randy Escolango who was previously designated as officer-in-charge of the office of the SBMA administrator.

Diño had questioned Escolango’s appointment to the post and challenged the validity of an executive order splitting SBMA’s leadership between the chair and the administrator.

Earlier, Diño informed the Office of the President that he had assumed the functions of the administrator, citing Republic Act No. 7227 (Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992). CBB