GMA names Neri deputy as NEDA OIC

President Arroyo has designated deputy director-general Augusto Santos of the National Economic and Development Authority as officer-in-charge of the agency in place of erstwhile NEDA chief Romulo Neri.

The designation of Santos came a few weeks after the President asked Neri to become chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), replacing Dr. Carlito Puno.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced yesterday the designation of the NEDA OIC along with other newly appointed government officials, led by Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador as chairperson of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Labrador, a career educator, takes over from Ambeth Ocampo, whose term at the NCCA has already expired.

Ocampo’s appointment to the NCCA in 2005 had raised legal questions, as he is also the chairman of the National Historical Institute. Under the law, the executive director of the NHI should sit in the NCCA.

Ermita also announced the appointment of Jorge Judan as the president of the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC).

The position has been vacant for some time after PITC president Roberto Pagdanganan resigned to run for Bulacan governor in the May 14 elections.

Judan was commercial attaché for the PITC and the Department of Trade and Industry (DOTC) to China before his appointment as president of PITC.

Ermita also announced the appointment of Miguel Imbing Apostol as National Commission on Indigenous Peoples commissioner, representing Northern and Western Mindanao; Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III as chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology; Jose Mari Ponce as administrator and chief executive officer of the Cagayan Special Economic Zone Authority.

Aladdin Ampatuan was also appointed as assistant secretary for Muslim Concerns of the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA); Delfin Samson, as assistant secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR); Danilo Encinas, undersecretary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for New Government Centers.

Also appointed yesterday was Anthony Rolando Golez Jr., as executive director of the Bicol Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Effort Committee.

Golez is currently deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD). – Marvin Sy