Duterte appoints new SEC commissioner

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has appointed lawyer McJill Bryant Fernandez as commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino said Fernandez has extensive experience in government service.

“He will surely help push forward the SEC in its mandate of enabling the corporate sector, deepening the capital market and protecting the investing public,” Aquino said.

Fernandez succeeds Ephyro Luis Amatong who ended his eight years of service in the SEC. He will take over Amatong’s duty in supervising the SEC Markets and Securities Regulation Department (MSRD).

Fernandez previously served as the deputy executive secretary for general administration (DESGA) in the Office of the President.

As DESGA, Fernandez assisted the executive secretary in articulating the policy directives of the President through executive orders and ordinances, processing of applications for the establishment of special economic zones, evaluation of special authorities for executive agreements, foreign loans and grants, and in addressing policy, legal and administrative concerns of various agencies in the executive department as well as of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Aside from these roles, he concurrently represented the Office of the President and the executive secretary in several interagency committees and oversight bodies, including the Development Budget Coordination Committee, the Fiscal Incentives Review Board, the Cabinet cluster on economic development, and various committees and technical committees of the National Economic Development Authority.

Furthermore, Fernandez served on the governing boards of different GOCCs, including the Laguna Lake Development Authority, Development Academy of the Philippines, and the Philippine Center for Economic Development.

Prior to his role as DESGA, Fernandez worked at the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs under the Office of the President, and handled the review of government contracts, recommendations for executive clemency, and resolution of cases from agencies exercising quasi-judicial functions, as well as administrative disciplinary cases of presidential appointees and local chief executives.

A cum laude graduate from the University of the Philippines - Manila with a Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Political Science, Fernandez studied law at Ateneo de Manila University and finished with second honors.

He was admitted to the bar in April 2009, and began his practice at the Tolentino Corvera Macasaet and Reig Law Office, where he specialized in litigation, corporate, and labor law.

Meanwhile, Amatong led initiatives and reforms in the capital market. He also played a key role in crafting the Financial

Institutions Strategic Transfer Act, which aims to secure the Philippine financial system and support its recovery from the impact of the pandemic; the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Act, which paved the way for the domestic REIT market to take off; the Rules and Regulations Governing Crowdfunding, which recognize the financial innovation’s potential to broaden access to capital and investments; the Financial Consumer Protection Bill; and the 2015 Implementing Rules and Regulations of The Securities Regulation Code.