Javey Francisco– Photo from SEC
MANILA, Philippines—Lawyer Javey Paul D. Francisco will serve as commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for seven more years after he was reappointed by President Rodrigo Duterte about two months before the President steps down.
The SEC made the announcement on Monday (April 4), saying that Francisco would continue to “steer initiatives toward improving the ease of doing business in the country.”
Francisco is a “homegrown talent” at the SEC, having spent over two decades at the corporate regulator.
He started in 2001 as a securities counsel before being named director of the SEC’s extension office in Davao, the hometown of Duterte.
Francisco became a commissioner in 2018 to serve the unfinished term of Blas James Viterbo, the Aquino-era appointee who resigned early due to health reasons.
As commissioner, Francisco supervised the SEC’s company registration and monitoring department (CRMD) and human resource and administrative department. He also oversaw nine SEC extension offices located in Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Legazpi, Iloilo, Tarlac, and Zamboanga.
The SEC said in the statement that “Francisco played a key role in the crafting of guidelines that operationalize Republic Act No. 11232, or the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines.”
Key issuances from the commission included SEC memorandum circular No. 16, series of 2020, which relaxed the requirements for company registration by allowing incorporators to authenticate articles of incorporation instead of having them notarized or consularized.
Another circular in 2020 provided the guidelines on the amendment of corporate terms while SEC memorandum circular No. 7, series of 2019, provided for the establishment of one person corporations.
During the pandemic, the CRMD successfully transitioned to a zero face-to-face setup.
The SEC also launched the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Companies, the Electronic System for Payments to the SEC, and the Electronic Filing and Submission Tool.
“The commission’s programs toward the ease of doing business has been recognized by both local and international bodies, including the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission who in 2019 cited the SEC’s implementation of an online registration system for minimizing the window for red tape, thereby curtailing corruption in government,” the SEC said in the statement.
TSB