Who is Jose Luis Montales, new Senate secretary and impeachment clerk of court?

Senators, via voice vote, elected Taguig City administrator Jose Luis Montales on Monday as Senate secretary.

His election came a week after a new majority elected Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano to the chamber's helm, to replace Sen. Vicente "Tito" Sotto III.

With the Senate convening as an impeachment court to try Vice President Sara Duterte, Montales will also act as the tribunal's clerk of court.

Who is Jose Luis Montales?

Montales was the city administrator to Taguig Mayor Laarni "Lani" Cayetano, the wife of the Senate President, when he was elected Senate secretary.

According to a resolution of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Oriental Mindoro, he was also the city administrator of Taguig from 2010 to 2017.

Montales served as the Undersecretary for Civilian Security and Consular Concerns of the Department of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018, when Alan Peter Cayetano was the foreign affairs secretary of then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

He was elected the secretary general of the House of Representatives on July 22, 2019, when Alan Peter Cayetano was the Speaker.

It was for this that the Oriental Mindoro provincial board issued the resolution to congratulate Montales and express its "profound commendation."

"Atty. Jose Luis G. Montales, Atty. JGM to his friends, is a true-blooded Mindoreño born and raised in the City of Calapan, and graduated with highest honor at the Calapan Central School and Oriental Mindoro National High School," the resolution read.

"He then studied AB Philosophy at the Ateneo De Manila University, finished Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines - Diliman, and passed the Philippine Bar Examinations on 15 March 1994," it added. –NB, GMA News