Musingshen President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. announced that his economic team would be composed of Benjamin Diokno as Secretary of Finance, Felipe Medalla as Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas , and Arsenio Balisacan as Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority , the Philippine Stock Exchange Index gained 47.76 points, to 6,645.52 while the broader All-Shares Index went up by 14.61 points to 3,568.65.
Medalla earned bachelor’s degrees in Economics and in Accounting from De La Salle University in 1970, a master’s degree in Economics from UP Diliman, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1983. He served as dean of the UP School of Economics for four years starting in 1994.
I was not as elated as the captains of industry were when Bongbong Marcos announced the names of the members of his economic team, though experienced and competent, learned and accomplished they are. I have misgivings about Diokno. He has been in the high echelons of government for too long such that I believe he has been infected with the kind of politics the top government officials he has been dealing with practice.
The governor of the BSP serves a term of six years and can be re-appointed for another term of six years. President Duterte appointed Nestor Espenilla, Jr. as BSP governor on July 4, 2017. When Espenilla died in office on Feb. 23, 2019, President Duterte appointed Department of Budget and Management Secretary Diokno as BSP governor to complete the term of Espenilla. When Diokno was named secretary of Finance by President Marcos Jr.