President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed three undersecretaries including a chief economist to complete the leadership team of the Department of Finance led by Secretary Ralph Recto.
“I thank the President for appointing such highly competent officials. They are all valuable additions to my team at the DOF. I am confident that they will lead their respective offices with great skill, dedication and integrity,” Recto said.
Charlito Martin Mendoza takes on the role of undersecretary for the revenue operations group (ROG), overseeing the operations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Before his appointment, Mendoza served as district collector for the BOC Port of Cebu from July 2019 to October 2022.
Meanwhile, Domini Velasquez was appointed undersecretary heading the office of the chief economist (OCE), which is a specialized unit dedicated to analyzing data on emerging economic developments, providing early warnings and recommending response measures aimed at anticipating and addressing key economic issues.
The new chief economist has over 15 years of experience in macroeconomic research and policy analysis.
Velasquez spent most of her career in the government, particularly with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), where she provided economic analysis and advice for the country’s development plan.
She also held key positions at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Investor Relations Office (BSP-IRO), Citibank’s public sector risk unit and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department.
Prior to joining the DOF, she was the chief economist for China Banking Corp.
Leading the fiscal policy and monitoring group (FPMG) as undersecretary is University of the Philippines School of Economics associate professor Renato Reside Jr.
Reside will spearhead the formulation and advancement of tax reform proposals and other crucial fiscal policy recommendations.
He will also oversee the forecasting and programming of national government revenues, managing cash programming and vigilant monitoring of the government’s finances.
Reside has extensive mastery in the fields of macroeconomics, taxation and public finance, pension system development, banking and financial markets, investments and infrastructure development.
He has served the DOF intermittently since the early 2000s as a consultant for various tax issues.