PBBM names new appointees to PDEA, MMDA, PCSO

FILE: Facade of the Malacañang Palace as seen from Pasig River. (Photo by Architect Jorge Ramos (d. 2015) for the underlying copyrighted work (Malacañang Palace). Image is by Official Gazette of the Philippines, originally uploaded on Commons by User:P-JR – Commons:File:Malacañang Palace (Cropped).jpg, Public Domain)

MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has named new appointees to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), Malacañang announced Friday.

Retired police officers Pierre Bucsit and Procopio Lipana were tapped as PDEA deputy director general and MMDA general manager, respectively, while Frisco San Juan Jr. was designated as MMDA deputy chairperson, based on the list of new presidential appointees released by the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Bucsit, Lipana and San Juan took their oaths of office before Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Friday, along with another retired police general, Moro Virgilio Lazo, who was appointed PDEA director general in October.

Bucsit was a former executive officer of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Western Mindanao while Lazo was once chief of the Special Action Force.

Before replacing former MMDA general manager Baltazar Melgar, Lipana served as head of operations of the Quezon City Market Development and Administration Department and was once the deputy director for operations of the QC Police District.

San Juan was MMDA general manager under the Duterte administration, used to head the Pasig River Ferry Service and was a former Rizal vice governor.

On Monday, retired Marikina City judge Felix Reyes was sworn in as member of the PCSO Board of Directors. He was a former president of the Philippine Judges Association.