President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Thursday announced the designation of the new heads of the Department of Health (DOH) and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
Marcos picked Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire to serve as Officer in Charge (OIC) of DOH.
Vergeire is known for being at the forefront of DOH’s information campaign amid the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citing the provision of Marcos’s Memorandum Circular No. 1, Press Secretary Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles said Vergeire’s term as OIC will last until the end of the month.
“If there will be no designated secretary of DOH before that time, her term as OIC will be extended,” Angeles said at a news conference on Thursday.
Marcos also assigned former Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) Administrator Melquiades Robles as the new General Manager of PCSO.
Angeles said Robles is known as the first administrator of LRTA who was able to make the agency profitable.
She noted Robles is currently a businessman engaged in real estate and an owner of a rehabilitation facility.
Robles was accused of graft in relation to the alleged illegal hiring of janitors in 2009 during his stint with the LRTA, but he was later acquitted by the Sandiganbayan of the said case in 2019.