CA Confirms Avisado as DBM Secretary

The Commission on Appointments (CA) has confirmed the ad interim appointment of Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Wendel E. Avisado. He has been Acting Secretary of the agency since August 2019.

Avisado was confirmed during the Commission's plenary session on Wednesday, presided over by CA Chairman Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri sponsored the confirmation of the Secretary in the CA Plenary. He proudly called the Surigao-born Avisado "a product of Mindanao."

Prior to the Plenary Session, Zubiri, who chairs the Committee on Budget and Management in the CA, presided over the hearing of the Committee which gave its consent and recommended to the plenary the confirmation of the ad interim appointment of Avisado.

Avisado entered government service in 1986 and went on to occupy various leadership positions in the Department of Interior and Local Government and the City of Davao. He was appointed as Deputy Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Council in 2010. In 2016, he began his service as Presidential Assistant for Special Concerns under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

In his time as Acting Secretary of the DBM, he has seen to the swift enactment of the 2020 National Budget and of Republic Act 11466, or the Salary Standardization Law 5.

Zubiri thanked Avisado for providing assistance to the Ministry of Finance, and Budget and Management of the Bangsamoro Autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao (MFBM-BARMM) during the crafting of the first-ever Bangsamoro Expenditure Program.

"I am pleased to know that our brothers and sisters in the Bangsamoro are getting the assistance and support they need from no less than the national government's top expert on budgetary matters and fiscal management."