First appointment: Romulo to finance

President Arroyo named yesterday the first of the members of her Cabinet — former Sen. Alberto Romulo as finance secretary.

She said she could not name the other members of the incoming Cabinet because this would be divisive.

"My first priority is to help restore confidence in the economy. We will ensure a level playing field, and will look at revenues," Romulo told The STAR.

He expressed concern over the budget deficit, saying a review of the performance of the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue would help him plan how to tackle the problem.

"I will have a more detailed program for the first 100 days of the Arroyo administration," Romulo said.

Those who have known Romulo were not surprised that he was the first Cabinet member announced by the President.

Romulo comes from Tarlac, and is a nephew of Gen. Carlos P. Romulo. He holds a doctorate in law and is also a certified public accountant. He was a practicing lawyer and was head of the Philippine Tuberculosis Society when he was asked to run in 1984 as one of four opposition candidates in Quezon City for the Batasang Pambansa.

Though a political greenhorn, he was determined to help fight the Marcos dictatorship so he accepted the draft. He was handily elected to the Batasan, along with former Justice Cecilia Muñoz Palma and Orlando Mercado. Quezon City Mayor Ismael Mathay Jr. was the only member of the defunct Kilusang Bagong Lipunan to win in Quezon City in 1984.

Romulo was a key fiscalizer of the Marcos administration. He flailed endlessly at Amendment No. 6 which gave Marcos the power to legislate, at the administration’s juggling of funds, military abuses, and the construction of the Bataan nuclear power plant.

When Marcos was ousted in the 1986 EDSA people power revolt, Romulo was immediately named by President Corazon Aquino as her budget minister. As such, he was a member of the Monetary Board.

He won in the senatorial elections in 1987 and 1992. Among the laws he authored was the creation of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which replaced the Central Bank of the Philippines.

President Arroyo was a fellow senator from 1992 to 1998 when his second term ended. It was during the Ninth and Tenth Congress that he worked closely with her.

There were many who were convinced that the humble and soft-spoken Romulo was ripe for a higher position in 1998. He, however, forswore any ambition for a higher post and instead assumed the task of campaign manager for then presidential candidate Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He followed her when she agreed to run instead as running mate of former Speaker Jose de Venecia in 1998.

Romulo saw in her the future of Philippine politics.

Now, he is the Arroyo administration’s chief economic manager and shares a premier place in her efforts to realize what she has called a new Philippines.