Next DBM chief’s experience asset to Marcos admin: senators

Incoming Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman (File Photo: Department of Budget and Management/Facebook)

MANILA – Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Sonny Angara believe that President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. saw Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Assistant Governor Amenah Pangandaman’s vast experience and expertise in the field in choosing her to lead the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Revilla said Pangandaman is the “best pick” that will bring “a breath of fresh air” to the DBM leadership where she previously served.

“Ms. Pangandaman has great expertise in the field, having a unique experience and perspective of one who has worked on both the legislative and executive aspects of the country’s finances,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

From 2016 to 2019, Pangandaman was DBM undersecretary and Group Head of the Office of Secretary under then Budget Secretary and now incoming Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno.

Revilla also supported Marcos’ choice of former congresswoman Nadia Angping as head of the Presidential Management Staff; Christina Frasco as Department of Tourism secretary; Ivan John Enrile Uy as Department of Information Communications and Technology secretary; and broadcaster Erwin Tulfo as Department of Social Welfare and Development secretary.

“This is a good sign of things to come for the country,” he said.

Angara said he is looking forward to working with Pangandaman once again and discussing later this year the 2023 national budget.

“I am confident that we will be able to collaborate with the incoming Secretary, who has worked with my father, former Senate President Edgardo Angara as his chief-of-staff, and returning Senator Loren Legarda, when she was the Chairperson of the Committee on Finance,” he said in another statement late Monday.

With Pangandaman’s stints in the Senate, DBM and BSP, Angara said the coordination between the executive and the legislative branches of government will be smooth.

“As Budget and Management secretary, I will do my utmost to live up to the trust placed in me by the President-elect and craft responsive budget and management policies that will support our rebuilding efforts from the pandemic,” she said in an earlier statement. “The pandemic was a challenge like no other in the way it stretched our resources and set us back on our goals as a nation. My team and I vow to work with the rest of the economic team and continue the policies and reforms that we have long fought for.”