De Leon takes oath as new Treasurer

Finance Undersecretary Rosalia de Leon on Friday took her oath as the new National Treasurer, succeeding Roberto Tan, who is now an executive director with the World Bank Group.

She previously handled the Department of Finance’s International Finance Group (IFG), helping manage risks of the government’s debt and undertake liability management transactions covering the country’s external debt portfolio.

While at the IFG, De Leon oversaw the execution of several major transactions in the global capital markets, including the issuance of global bonds as well as the exchange of outstanding global bonds with new floats.

Even as she assumes office at the Bureau of Treasury—which takes on domestic funding exercises—De Leon helped in Friday’s global peso bond offer and the standing call for a buyback of dollar and euro bonds.

Assistant Secretary Ma. Edita Z. Tan, who has been with the IFG’s international finance operations since 1992, takes over the IFG as officer-in-charge.

Last November 1, De Leon’s predecessor Tan started a two-year term as one of 25 executive directors of World Bank.

Tan took over “EDS15” of Office of the Executive Director No. 15, which represents nine countries including the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Tan was nominated for the position and elected by other members of the EDS15 countries during last month’s World Bank meeting in Japan.

World Bank executive directors are based in Washington, DC, and, in continuous session, conduct the general operations of the WB group.

The DOF has been regularly seconding key personnel to the WB’s board of directors.

Other finance officials that represented the country in EDS15 included Undersecretaries Jeremias Paul and Gil Beltran and Assistant Secretaries Soledad Cruz, Ma. Teresa Habitan, Tan (the IFG OIC) and, most recently, Ma. Lourdes Recente.—Ronnel W. Domingo

First posted 3:19 pm | Friday, November 9th, 2012