President Bongbong Marcos has doused speculation that he would axe Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno for his widely panned handling of inflation and the falling peso.
“Fake news. I don’t know where it comes from. Why would I do that?” Marcos said when asked by reporters if he was reshuffling his economic team led by Diokno.
Bilyonaryo.com reported Monday on the rife speculation in business circles that Diokno’s days in the Department of Finance are numbered after Marcos fired Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Lilia C. Guillermo.
Bilyonaryo.com reported that Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, former Trade Secretary Mar Roxas, and former Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro as possible replacements of Diokno.
Guillermo, Diokno’s assistant when he was governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), was replaced by Marcos’ wedding godson, Assistant Governor and former Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Deputy Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr.
Marcos described the Diokno-led economic managers as a “great team.”
“We are trying to go down a certain direction. It’s wrong — it’s a very, very poor time to, as they say, change horses in midstream,” said Marcos.
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