Dr Emmanuel F. Esguerra, deputy director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), has been officially appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA director general.
Esguerra replaces former NEDA chief Arsenio Balisacan, appointed by Aquino to head the newly established Philippine Competition Commission.
“We will build on what the agency has accomplished under former Secretary Balisacan and continue the ongoing programs and projects for the remaining months of the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016,” Esguerra said in a statement.
“We want a seamless transition towards the preparation of the successor development plan as the next administration settles in,” he added.
Esguerra said he will continue the thrusts that “we have focused on in the last few years: human capital development and investment in infrastructure to ensure the inclusivity of development.”
As NEDA chief, Esguerra will also be the vice chair of the authority’s board, as well as head of its several inter-agency committees.
Concurrently, he will chair the boards of the Philippine Statistics Authority, Public-Private Partnership Center, Philippine Institute of Development Studies, Philippine Center for Economic Development, and the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute.
Esguerra served as the co-senior official of the Philippines to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Senior Officials’ Meeting last year, the chairman of the APEC Group on Services (GOS) and the APEC Policy Support Unit Board, and the Philippine acting minister during the Second APEC Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting in September 2015.
As the chair of GOS, he championed the APEC Services Cooperation Framework which was deemed to strengthen APEC’s work on services. The framework, proposed by the Philippines and adopted during the Leaders’ Summit in December 2015, is expected to benefit the country’s vibrant services sector.
On secondment from the University of the Philippines Diliman where he is a professor of economics, Esguerra is also the country’s lead negotiator for services in the Philippines-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) negotiations on a free trade agreement.
Esguerra is likewise helping push for the implementation of the ASEAN Framework on Multimodal Transportation (AFMT), multimodal transportation being an essential component of the Philippine-EFTA proposed free trade agreement. He has called the attention of officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on the country’s need to comply with its commitment to the ASEAN framework. As a result of his efforts, there are now steps being undertaken by the DOTC and DTI to implement the AFMT.
Esguerra has been speaker at several logistics-related events, including the PortCalls Cargo Economics Conference.
He was appointed as NEDA deputy director-general in July 2012 and became head of policy and planning of the National Development Office.
Esguerra holds a Ph.D. from the Ohio State University, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Economics from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
