Monetary Board Member and former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla is taking over as governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) effective July 1 to replace Benjamin Diokno who was tapped as Finance Secretary by President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Medalla, who will also serve as chairman of the Monetary Board, will serve Diokno’s unexpired term until July 2023.
A Ph.D. holder in economics and an educator for more than four decades, Medalla was first appointed as Monetary Board member by the late president Benigno Aquino Jin July 2011, and was reappointed for another term by outgoing President Duterte in July 2017.
Prior to joining the Monetary Board, Medalla was a professor and served as Dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UPSE), as well as Vice President for Planning and Finance of the UP System.
He served as Socio-Economic Planning Secretary and Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority from 1998 to 2001. He was also a member of the Presidential Task Force on Tax and Tariff Reforms formed in 1994.
Medalla was a former President of the Philippine Economic Society, as well as Chairman of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, a non-government organization primarily engaged in public advocacy for fiscal reforms and market-friendly government policies.
A seasoned economist, Medalla has written on the effects of economic policies on poverty and problems in the measurement of Philippine economic growth, among others.
The incoming BSP Governor holds Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Commerce (Economics-Accounting) degrees from the De La Salle University (Cum Laude), Master of Arts in Economics from UP, and Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
