President Benigno Aquino III named former Senator Manuel Roxas III as the next secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications.
He will take over the post on July 1 from Jose de Jesus who resigned due to personal reasons.
On top of being transport secretary, Roxas — Aquino’s defeated vice-presidential running mate in the 2010 presidential election — will be a senior member of the president’s economic team.
Earlier, there were reports Roxas would be appointed presidential chief of staff.
Aquino ordered Roxas to review alleged anomalous contracts such as the NBN-ZTE deal entered into by the past administration.
Roxas will also have to decide what to with Land Transportation Office (LTO) head Virginia Torres, whom Aquino had handpicked for the post. Torres was asked by Aquino to go on leave in April for her involvement in the ownership dispute over Stradcom Corp, the database technology provider of the LTO. Torres returns to the LTO on June 19.
