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Batangas Representative Ralph Recto took his oath of office as the new finance chief before President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on January 12
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Recto replaced Benjamin Diokno
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Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go was also sworn into office by Marcos on January 12
Batangas Representative Ralph Recto was sworn into office by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. as the new finance secretary on January 12.
On the same day, Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go also took his oath before Marcos.
Recto, the House Deputy Speaker, replaced Benjamin Diokno, who held the post since July 2022 or the start of the Marcos administration.
In a statement, Diokno said he is “confident” with the incoming finance chief. “I am proud knowing that I will be leaving my post at a time when the Philippine economy, in general, and the DOF, in particular, are in a better state of affairs than when I inherited them.”
The finance secretary is in charge of the government’s revenue-generating agencies, Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs.
Recto’s former colleagues in the Senate expressed support for his appointment.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri in a statement on Thursday said “more than most, Recto understands how to bridge the gap between the abstractions of mathematics and the very concrete realities that we face as a nation.”
The new finance chief was director general of the National Economic and Development Authority from 2008 to 2009 under the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
He was elected three terms in the Senate, where he served as the Senate President Pro Tempore and Senate Minority Leader.
Before joining the Senate, he served three full terms as congressman of Batangas’ 4th district.
As a lawmaker, Recto pushed an unpopular law that jacked up the value-added tax to 12% from 10%.
The Batangas representative earned his bachelor’s degree in Commerce major in Business Management from De La Salle University-Manila. He has a certificate in business economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific, and completed units in the public administration program of the University of the Philippines.
He took up a leadership course at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
