PBBM appoints 2-term NPC president as NIA administrator

On Jul 26, 2022

New NIA Administrator and former National Press Club (NPC) president Benny Antiporda (right), conferring with President Bongbong Marcos Jr. along with other officials of the agency. The NIA is expected to play a crucial role in the Marcos administration’s effort to uplift the current sorry state of the country’s agriculture sector (photo from Antiporda's FB page).

PRESIDENT Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., has appointed another veteran newsman, Benny Antiporda, into his official family as Acting Administrator and member of the board of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), which is to play a crucial role in the upliftment of the country’s agriculture sector.

The Office of the Press Secretary on Friday, July 22, 2022, in a statement, confirmed Antiporda’s appointment, along with 11 other new government officials.

Antiporda would be the second most known media personality to be appointed by PBBM along with Erwin Tulfo, who is now the secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

However, Antiporda is already considered a ‘veteran’ in public service, having been appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte, first as a member of the board of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in 2017 and the following year, as undersecretary at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for solid waste management.

Prior to his joining the government, Antiporda was a 2-term president of the National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), one of the country’s oldest but biggest organization of active members of the press. He also served as president of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ), the region’s premier media organization.

As NPC president, Antiporda ensured the financial viability of the Club by steering it out of its millions in debt. He also launched a ‘scholarship program’ for its members, provided them with health and other benefits and even built a housing project for the Club.

As a government official, Antiporda has been cited for his integrity, caring for his subordinates and as a ‘hands-on’ public official who always deliver according to the expectation of Malacañang.

Aside from serving as DENR deputy spokesperson in concurrent capacity, Antiporda is also in the frontline of ensuring the success of the government’s clean-up and rehabilitation of Boracay Island and Manila Bay, that has both earned widespread approval.

Aside from Antiporda, also appointed were:

Franz Josef George Espina Alvarez, acting president and CEO and board member, Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) Exploration Corporation;

Rosalia Villegas de Leon, National Treasurer; Philippe Jones Lhuiller, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Spain and the Canary Islands; Pedro Ramirez Laylo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Israel;

Retired Armed Forces (AFP) general, Emmanuel Buenaflor Salamat, Executive Director, National Secretariat, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC); Epimaco Verano Densing III, Undersecretary, Department of Education (DepEd); Prospero de Vera III, Chairman, Commission on Higher Education (CHED);

Ferdinand Galvez Sevilla, President, Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC), which is under the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG); Monica Prieto Teodoro, Special Envoy to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla; Secretary, Department of Energy (DOE); and, Alex Quiroz, Chairman, Governance Commission for Government Owned and Controlled Corporations.