Marcos names BSP exec as next BIR commissioner, retired PNP general as NICA chief

President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has named his incoming administration’s chiefs of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA).

In a statement, Marcos’ press secretary-designate Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles said that the president-elect has chosen Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Assistant Governor Lilia Guillermo to head the BIR and retired Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon as National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) Director-General-designate.

Guillermo is designated as the next commissioner of the country’s top collection agency.

She is currently the central bank’s head of its Technology and Digital Innovation Office and also manages the BSP's Information Technology Modernization Roadmap of 2018-2033.

Guillermo was also a former deputy commissioner of the BIR, where she oversaw the implementation of the Philippines Tax Computerization Project, which established a modern tax collection system for the BIR and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Cruz-Angeles said Guillermo's strong background in information technology and her almost four decades of service at the BIR complements Marcos' objective of boosting the country's revenue through efficient tax collection.

Joining Guillermo at the BIR is Atty. Romeo "Jun" Lumagui Jr. whom the president-elect nominated as Deputy Commissioner for Operations-designate, according to the press secretary-designate.

“Lumagui,” Cruz-Angeles said, “is a tax lawyer with decades of experience who once served as the Regional Investigation Division Chief of Revenue Region No. 7B East NCR.”

De Leon, meanwhile, who will head the NICA under the Marcos administration, is a member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) "Matatag" Class of 1971.

He is currently the president of the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC).

PPSC serves as the premier educational institution for the training, human resource development, and continuing education of all police, fire, and jail personnel.

With the nomination, de Leon would become part of the president-elect's security cluster with other officials from the departments of National Defense, the Interior and Local Government, Foreign Affairs, and Justice; the Armed Forces of the Philippines; Philippine National Police; and the National Bureau of Investigation, according to Cruz-Angeles. —KG, GMA News