Next BSP chief should be young, energetic — Paeng

In exactly 385 days, a new governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will have to be appointed and according to incumbent governor Rafael Buenaventura, his replacement has to be young and energetic.

Speaking before the members of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), Buenaventura said the future BSP governor should be physically young enough to withstand the rigors of the job.

"He should be in his early 40s to 50s," Buenaventura said.

The financial market has been speculating about who would replace Buenaventura whose six-year term ends in July 6, 2005. He was originally appointed by former president Joseph Estrada, taking the helm from former BSP governor Gabriel Singson.

At the Finex annual meeting at the Hotel Intercontinental, Buenaventura was asked if he would be recommending anyone as his replacement but the governor declined.

Buenaventura has consistently refused to indicate who his personal choice might be but people close to the BSP chief said his first choice was Amando Tetangco Jr, the youngest of the BSP’s three deputy governors.

Buenaventura is also reported to be supportive of Simon Paterno, the youthful president of Development Bank of the Philippines.

Publicly, however, Buenaventura said he was leaving it up to the "appointing powers" saying that he would not formally endorse anyone.

Buenaventura stressed, however, that aside form the obvious qualifications, youth would be his primary criteria for selecting a central bank governor because of the long hours and the frequent travel that the job entailed.

"It is the first and foremost job qualification," he said. "He has to be young physically."

Tetangco and Paterno are the early front-runners for the BSP position and both are graduates of the Ateneo University. Buenaventura himself graduated from De La Salle University.

Before working for the BSP, Tetangco was posted at the International Monetary Fund in the 1990s. Paterno, on the other hand, was managing director at JP Morgan, handling postings in the bank’s treasury and investment banking operations both here and abroad.

Aside from Paterno and Tetangco, other names have also been mentioned as possible successors, including the former president and CEO of the defunct Far East Bank and Trust Co. Octavio Espiritu, former Estrada administration Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu, and more recently, former Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho.

Buenaventura said his replacement must also have "good international and domestic experience."

Asked whether he would accept a reappointment, however, Buenaventura dismissed the possibility and declined to entertain speculations that he would be willing to continue for another six years.

In the confusion and near-panic over the country’s deficit blow-out in 2002, Buenaventura was tagged by international financial analysts as the "only grown-up in the room."