Mike Defensor named acting PNR chairman

MANILA, Philippines - Former presidential chief of staff and unsuccessful senatorial candidate Michael Defensor leads the latest batch of appointments and promotions that Malacañang announced Wednesday. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Defensor, who ran under the Team Unity ticket in the 2007 polls, has been named acting chairman of the Philippine National Railways. Aside from Defensor, also appointed were Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo as chairman of the Presidential Task Force for the Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation Project (MRBRP), and Sancho Buqing as regional director of National Commission on Indigenous People. Ermita also announced the promotion of Sr. Supt. Jose Mamaril of the Bureau of Fire Protection as chief superintendent. Mamaril is the BFP director for administration while Buquing is a professor at the College of Arts and Sciences of the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic University. Quevedo, aside from being Archbishop of Cotabato, served as president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in 2000 and 2003. Defensor, prior to his new assignment, had served as head of the task force on the preparations and opening of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal (NAIA) 3. He also served as President Arroyo's presidential chief of staff before he quit to run for senator. He was the congressman of Quezon City when he was first tapped by President Arroyo as her housing czar of head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council before transferring him to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as secretary. - GMANews.TV