On his 100th day in office, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) secretary Henry Aguda formally rejected this week the courtesy resignations that he asked to submit from the remaining undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and directors of the agency.
From the original set of officials that served under the previous DICT chief, Ivan John Uy, three have left the agency – undersecretary for cybersecurity Jeffrey Ian Dy, undersecretary for ICT industry development Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, and Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) executive director Alexander Ramos.
Assistant secretary for legal affairs Renato A. Paraiso, meanwhile, was appointed as head of the CICC as replacement for Ramos.
The new DICT chief was supposed to bring in two undersecretaries of his own – lawyers Leandro “Dino” Aguirre and Christina Faye M. Condez-De Sagon. However, it is only Condez-Sagon who has joined the agency so far as undersecretary for special concerns. Malacanang has yet to reportedly release the appointment papers of Aguirre.
Celine Dee, a lawyer and colleague of Aguirre at the National Privacy Commission (NPC), has been appointed meanwhile as assistant secretary. Another assistant secretary, Maria Teresa “Tess” Camba, assistant secretary for regional development, was supposed to retire but her name still appears as one of the top officials in the DICT website.
Other holdovers from the term of Uy who are still serving in the agency are:
- Paul Joseph V. Mercado (undersecretary for cybersecurity and upskilling)
- Heherson M. Asiddao (undersecretary for support services)
- David L. Almirol Jr. (undersecretary for e-government)
- Gerald James B. Reyes (assistant secretary for planning and procurement)
- Philip A. Varilla (assistant secretary for infostructure management)
- Wilroy V. Ticzon (assistant secretary for consumer protection)
- Edwin S. Ligot (assistant secretary for management information systems service)
