PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. has appointed tax lawyer Romeo Lumagui Jr. as commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) said yesterday.
The OPS, in a Facebook post, said Lumagui took his oath yesterday.
In a press release, OPS said Lumagui has held various positions in the BIR and was serving as deputy commissioner of the bureau prior to his new appointment.
Among the positions he had held include being the technical assistant to the commissioner; tax fraud division head for Revenue Region No. 6, Manila, Revenue Region No. 4, Pampanga, and Revenue Region No. 7B, East NCR; and head of the BIR project management and implementation service which aims to develop and oversee the implementation of the overall reform or modernization program of the Bureau.
Lumagui also headed several task forces to boost BIR’s collections, such as the Assets Recovery Task Force that was responsible for the collection of P833.69 million; and the Task Force on Direct Selling/Multi-Level Marketing and Investment Scams.
Known as the “dancing doctor,” Enrique Tayag has been appointed by President Marcos as undersecretary of the Department of Health.
This was confirmed by Tayag and Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire yesterday, with the former set to join the growing list of DOH undersecretaries.
“I was caught by surprise after I received the appointment as USec yesterday,” Tayag said in a phone interview.
“As for Director Eric Tayag, we received the transmittal of his appointment yesterday,” Vergeire said in a press conference.
Before his appointment, Tayag has been serving as director of the DOH-Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service.
He had also served as DOH assistant secretary from 2010 to 2015 under the Aquino administration.
He had also served the DOH as its spokesperson, head of the National Epidemiology Center, and director of the Bureau of Local Health Systems Development.
“We are still scheduling his oath taking so he has not assumed the position yet,” Vergeire, the DOH officer-in-charge said, adding they are still discussing where Tayag would be assigned.
“We want to assign him appropriately, based on his capacity, so he can best help the Department,” said Vergeire.
Aside from Tayag, the other DOH undersecretaries are Lilibeth David, Carolina Vidal-Taiño, Camilo Cascolan, Abdullah Dumama, Kenneth Ronquillo, Maria Francia Laxamana, and Nestor Santiago. — With Gerard Naval
