Lilia C. Guillermo, the current chief information officer and assistant governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), is planning to tap her vast IT background in her plan to digitalize the country’s tax collection system as the incoming head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Photo from BSP
In this new role, Guillermo is aiming to bring her wealth of experience in the IT field, having managed the BSP’s Technology and Digital Innovation Office in implementing the central bank’s IT Modernization Roadmap of 2018-2023 and furthering its digital transformation goals.
She has also previously spearheaded modernization projects in both the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the BIR.
“As a former Deputy Commissioner of the BIR and IT practitioner, I am committed to strengthening tax administration through digitalization. This will make the tax collection system more efficient and less prone to graft and corruption,” Guillermo said.
In media interviews after the announcement of her appointment as BIR chief, Guillermo also said she’s keen on going after social media influencers and professionals in a bid to raise revenues for the government.
Prior to joining the BSP in March 2019, she was undersecretary of the DBM where she managed and developed systems needed for the modernization of the Public Financial Management Program.
She was also formerly deputy commissioner of the BIR for nearly four decades, and acted as the project director of the World Bank-assisted “Tax Computerization Project.”
In 2013, she was also recognized as “one of the most powerful women in IT in the Philippines”.
Guillermo earned both her Master’s in Industrial Engineering (1981) and Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics (1977) from the University of the Philippines.
