President Duterte has retained the appointment of former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Felipe M. Medalla as member of the Monetary Board, and has also appointed two new members, namely, Peter B. Favila and Antonio S. Abacan Jr.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said Medalla, Favila and Abacan will serve a fixed term of six years each, as provided under the New Central Bank Act, or Republic Act (RA) 7653.
Abacan and Favila replaced Armando L. Suratos, who is a former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) deputy governor and former Development Bank of the Philippines Chairman Alfredo C. Antonio, who are scheduled to step down this year.
The powers and function of the BSP are exercised by its Monetary Board, which has seven members appointed by the President of the Philippines.
The newly announced appointments complete the membership of the board, which includes Dominguez, Juan D. de Zuniga Jr. and Valentin A. Araneta and its would-be chairman, incoming BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., who will assume office on July 3.
Medalla, who first served in the Monetary Board in 2011, was the director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority from July 1998 to January 2001. He also served as director of the Philippine National Oil Exploration Corp. and as independent director of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.
Favila returns after three years to the Monetary Board, where he earlier served as its member from 2008 to 2014. Besides serving as former Department of Trade and Industry chief from 2005 to 2010, Favila was once president of the Allied Banking Corp. and president and CEO of the Philippine National Bank. He also served as a consultant to the BSP and CDC Holdings Inc. and was chairman-president of the Philippine Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2005.
Abacan was the former president of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) from 1993 to April 2006, and of the Philippine Savings Bank and Unibancard Corp. from 1988 to 1991. He is currently the group vice chairman of the Metrobank Group.
He is also a senior adviser at the First Metro Investment Corp., Federal Land and Toyota Manila Bay Corp.; and chairman of the board of Toyota Financial Services (Phils) Inc.
Under RA 7653, the Monetary Board is in charge of issuing rules and regulations it considers necessary for the effective discharge of the responsibilities and exercise of the powers vested upon it and the BSP.
“The rules and regulations issued shall be reported to the President and Congress within 15 days from the date of their issuance; [and it is tasked to] direct the management, operations and administration of the BSP, reorganize its personnel, and issue such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary or convenient for this purpose. The legal units of the BSP shall be under the exclusive supervision and control of the Monetary Board.”