Press secretary’s sis gets DA post; ex-DILG spox to NSC
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed the sister of Press Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The President, who serves as the concurrent agriculture secretary, appointed Genevieve Velicaria-Guevarra as assistant agriculture secretary, according to the Presidential Communications Office.
Guevarra previously worked as a lawyer at the Office of the Deputy Executive Director for Operations of the Commission on Elections.
Marcos also appointed former Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya as assistant director general of the National Security Council (NSC).
Malaya, a former spokesperson for the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), will be working under his former DILG boss, now National Security Adviser Eduardo Año.
Sotto back in MTRCB
The President reappointed former Quezon City Councilor Diorella Maria Sotto-Antonio as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
READ: MTRCB wants revolving fund to utilize own revenues
Sotto-Antonio is the daughter of former Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
Marcos also designated Celso Olido and Maria Melba Wee as directors at the DA while Cheryll Eusela was named executive director III at the Philippine Rubber Research Institute.
He also placed Ma. Lorina Rigor as a director at the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development; Maria Regina Angela Galias, and Marlito Rodriguez as directors at the Department of Migrant Workers; Jose Carillo, Rodelio Jocson, and Danilo Macerin as directors at the Department of Transportation (DOTr); and Jose Briones Jr. as a deputy administrator III also at the DOTr.
Marcos also appointed Franz Josef George Alvarez, Edgar Benedict Cutiongco, Rafael del Pilar, Arthur Saldivar-Sali, Romeo Solis Jr., and Adrian Ferdinand Sugay as members of the board of directors of the Philippine National Oil Company Exploration Corp.
The President also named Juan Emmanuel Reyes assistant secretary under the Presidential Management Staff, while Rene Cristobal, Jose Roland Moya, Ranulfo Payos, and Antonio Sayo were appointed members representing the employers’ sector at the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, and Arthur Juego as a member representing the labor sector.
The new appointees also included Rene Soriano as acting member representing the employers’ sector at the board of commissioners of the Department of Labor and Employment; and Carlos Catis and Alice Dumadag as workers’ sector representatives for Region IX and XII, respectively, in the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board.
The President has yet to appoint an agriculture secretary nine months after he assumed office on June 30 last year.
He has also yet to name a full-fledged secretary of the Department of Health (DOH) since making Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire the agency’s officer in charge in mid-July 2022.
According to data from the Commission on Appointments (CA) website, a total of 301 appointments, which include 19 Cabinet secretaries, have been confirmed by the constitutional body between June 30, 2022, and February 22 this year.
From December 16, 2022, to March 1, a total of 271 nominations or appointments from the Presidential Communications Office and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of National Defense are pending before the CA.
—WITH A REPORT FROM Inquirer Research
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