De Leon back as National treasurer

Following her stint in the Washington-based World Bank, ex-National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon will be back in her former post, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

Dominguez announced De Leon’s return to the Bureau of the Treasury during a meeting of the Foundation for Economic Freedom.

Dominguez later told reporters that De Leon might resume work at the Treasury after current National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan signs the papers to settle by Feb. 2 the global bond issuance of $500 million in new 25-year bonds.

De Leon was the national treasurer from 2012-2014 and served in the Department of Finance in various management posts since 1995.

Until late 2016, she served as senior adviser to the World Bank executive director for the group that also included Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

De Leon was posted to the World Bank in 2015 when Tan, who held the executive director post for the multilateral grouping in 2012-2014, returned to the country.

Tan is reportedly moving to head state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) next month.

De Leon earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics degree from the University of the Philippines in 1981. She finished her Master of Arts in Development Economics in Williams College in the US in 1991.

Meanwhile, the DOF is also adding a new strategy, economics and results group to be headed by Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua as part of the reorganization in the agency, according to Department Order No. 4-2017 signed by Dominguez on Jan. 20.

Since it would be a new group within the DOF structure, they were awaiting an executive order to establish it, Chua said.

According to Chua, the strategy, economics and results group would push for the DOF’s key priorities, including the comprehensive tax reform now pending in Congress.

Chua was earlier designated as the DOF’s point person for tax reform. Ben O. de Vera