Danny Lim named new MMDA head

MANILA, Philippines - Retired brigadier general Danilo Lim will take over as chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said yesterday.

MMDA officer-in-charge Tim Orbos, who assumed office in August last year, will stay as general manager, he said.

President Duterte is scheduled to sign Lim’s appointment papers tomorrow before he leaves for Russia.

Lim ran for senator in the 2010 elections but did not win. He was later appointed by then president Benigno Aquino III as Bureau of Customs deputy commissioner but resigned in July 2013 after Aquino criticized the BOC for corruption.

Lim is the 12th former military or police official Duterte appointed to a post after National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Office of the President Undersecretary Emmanuel Bautista, National Irrigation Administration chief Ricardo Visaya, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Alexander Balutan, National Food Authority administrator Jason Aquino, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director Ricardo Jalad, Bureau of Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, Land Transportation Office chief Edgar Galvante and incoming Interior Secretary and incumbent Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Eduardo Año.

Lim led the failed 1989 coup against the administration of former president Corazon Aquino, for which he was detained for two years.

He was relieved from his post as commander of the First Scout Rangers Regiment for allegedly plotting a coup against then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006 and was detained from 2006 to 2010 for charges of rebellion and attempted coup d’etat.

Along with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Lim was among the Magdalo group members who staged the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.