De Leon named new Treasurer

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has appointed Finance Undersecretary Rosalia de Leon as Treasurer of the Philippines, succeeding Roberto Tan who left last month for a World Bank post.

De Leon took her oath yesterday before Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima after she concluded on Thursday another successful sale of $750 million worth of 10-year global peso notes, the third of its kind to be issued by the Philippines.

De Leon has served as Undersecretary for the International Finance Group at the Department of Finance since September 2010 in which she represented the department in multilateral and regional financial fora and cooperation, the Finance department said.

She also formulated the government’s debt financing strategies, managed the risks of the public sector debt and executed liability management transactions covering the country’s external debt portfolio, the DOF also said.

As head of the International Finance Group, De Leon oversaw “the execution of several noteworthy liability management transactions in the global capital markets, including Local Currency Linked Global Notes, Global Bond Exchange and Tender Offer.”

 Prior to her appointment as manager of government coffers, De Leon assumed several key offices in the Department of Finance, including as the Finance Secretary’s Chief-of-Staff (July 2005- June 2010) and OIC-Head of International Finance Group (July 2007-September 2010).

She also honed her skills in international governance practice, having served as advisor to the Philippine Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank.

De Leon’s academic background includes a Master of Arts in Development Economics from Williams College Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Arts Degree iin Economics from the University of the Philippines.

Tan left last month to serve as executive director at the World Bank for two years.

Aside from De Leon’s appointment, Purisima also announced the appointment of Assistant Secretary Maria Edita  Tan, who has been with IFG’s International Finance Operations since 1992, as Officer-in-Charge of the International Finance Group of the Department of Finance (DOF).

 Furthermore, Finance Undersecretary Carlo Carag takes over as Officer-in-Charge of the Revenue Integrity Protection Service in addition to supervising the Revenue Operations Group following the resignation of Executive Director Romeo Tomas Jr.