National treasurer resigns

After a tumultuous eight-month term as head of the Bureau of Treasury (BT) and amid rumors of policy disagreements with top finance officials, National Treasurer Mina Figueroa has tendered her irrevocable resignation.

Figueroa, who took over the bureau only last February, submitted her resignation to President Arroyo yesterday, effective Oct. 15.

No replacement has been named.

Considered a key member of Mrs. Arroyo’s economic team, Figueroa said she first wanted to leave the BT when former secretary Jose Isidro Camacho resigned from the Department of Finance (DOF) in November 2003.

Figueroa said she again attempted to resign when former national treasurer Sergio Edeza left the BT but was prevailed upon to stay on as national treasurer.

"My commitment was to stay until after the May elections," Figueroa said. "Now that the election is over, I feel it is time for me to move on."

Figueroa explained that her decision to join the BT was to help out Edeza and Camacho. Since both officials have left government service, she said she saw no reason to stay.

The market has been rife with rumors that Figueroa was leaving the BT in the wake of policy disagreements with finance officials, specifically undersecretary Eric Recto, who heads the International Finance Group of the DOF.

There were reports of disagreements over the government’s recent $1-billion global bond offer. Some banks have attributed the success of the bond float to its price.

Figueroa denied her involvement in the deal, saying she was not even following the market when the offer was concluded.

"I was not involved in that deal and I know only what I read in the papers," Figueroa said. "I wasn’t even following the market at the time."

She said her resignation should not come as a surprise since she had been trying to turn her position over to someone else.

"I just want to go back to the private sector," she said.

Recto also expressed alarm over statements implicating him in Figueroa’s resignation.

Recto was recently appointed as head of the government securities auction committee as representative of Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong.

"That’s my only participation in the domestic borrowing operations of the BT because the secretary designated me as a representative — not as her replacement but only to sit in for her," he said.

Recto insisted he and Figueroa never disagreed on a single policy issue.

"We haven’t disagreed on anything, whether domestic or international borrowing policies because our mandates do not overlap," he said.

Like Figueroa, Recto had been trying to resign from the DOF but his resignation was repeatedly ignored by both Amatong and the President.

Early in her term, Figueroa became known as "Rejection Queen" after a series of decisions to reject throw-away bids made by some banks that wanted to gauge the government’s desperation to raise cash from the domestic credit market.

Figueroa went as far as issuing cash management bills in an attempt to protect the government from high interest rates after the Arroyo administration missed its deficit target earlier this year.

Figueroa took over from Edeza amid high expectations that she would be a tough negotiator when dealing with banks and other financial institutions that want to make money out of lending to the government.

Figueroa served at the BT starting 1999. She was recruited to work for the bureau after having worked since 1997 for Security Bank Corp., where she was steadily promoted from assistant vice president to vice president.

She was appointed deputy treasurer in August 2001.