PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has appointed former Deputy Treasurer and World Bank Officer Sharon P. Almanza as the new national treasurer, replacing Rosalia V. de Leon, who is now a Monetary Board member.
Mr. Marcos also appointed two new undersecretaries and one assistant secretary for the Department of Finance (DoF), as well as two new directors for the Information Management Service, the DoF said in a statement on Monday.
Ms. Almanza had been officer-in-charge at the Bureau of the Treasury, having served as deputy treasurer.
She was also seconded to the World Bank Group between 2021 and 2023 as the alternate executive director and senior advisor for the Constituency of Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Philippines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago.
Ms. Almanza has also held positions in the DoF as the division chief for Debt and Risk Management and Multilateral Assistance for the International Finance Group (IFG).
Mr. Marcos also appointed Rolando G. Tungpalan as the finance undersecretary for the Corporate Affairs and Strategic Infrastructure Group.
Mr. Tungpalan will be in charge of fast-tracking the rollout of the Build Better More program by addressing bottlenecks and helping create a conducive environment for investors.
He had served as undersecretary for Investment Programming at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), chairing the Technical Boards of the Investment Coordination Committee and the Infrastructure Committee of the NEDA Board.
He was also the primary government representative for multilateral and bilateral programming of official development assistance, leading negotiations and high-level consultations.
Joven Z. Balbosa was appointed undersecretary for the International Finance Group (IFG), where he will be in charge of securing foreign development financing and formulating policy related to prudent external resource mobilization.
He will also head the collaboration of the DoF with other government agencies on international agreements covering trade, investments, and tax treaties.
Mr. Balbosa had served as advisor to the Southeast Asian Department of the Asian Development Bank and as an economist at the World Bank.
Gerald Alan A. Quebral was appointed assistant secretary for the Revenue Operations Group, tasked with overseeing Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) operations to ensure adequate revenue collection.
Mr. Quebral was previously the executive director of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Comprehensive Tax Reform Program in the Senate and House of Representatives.
He also spent almost 20 years as a revenue officer in various BIR divisions. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
