Artes is new MMDA chief
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Roa Duterte has appointed Atty. Romando Artes as the new Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman effective March 1, vice Atty. Benhur Abalos Jr. who resigned last February 7.
The newly-appointed MMDA chief expressed gratitude to the President for his trust and confidence, assuring the public that projects beneficial to Metro Manila shall continue to be implemented.
“It is an honor to be appointed as the MMDA Chairman. The agency has been my home for the past five years–from the term of the late Chairman Danilo Lim and later under Chairman Abalos,” said Artes.
“I will continue to work for the completion of the projects and programs needed and pursuant to our mandates – traffic, solid waste and flood management, urban renewal, public safety among others and the equally important COVID-19 vaccination as we transition to the new normal, ” he added.
Artes, also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), first served as the MMDA’s Assistant General Manager for Finance and Administration in May 2017 and later on as the agency’s General Manager in November 2021.
As AGM for Finance and Administration, he managed the budget and finances of the Authority and achieved the first-ever “unqualified opinion” from the Commission on Audit for 2019 and again in 2021. He was also instrumental in MMDA’s ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Artes also led the COVID-19 Committee of the Authority which managed to inoculate almost all MMDA employees and their immediate families. Because of the Authority’s harmonious relationship with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), National Task Force, Department of Health, and National Vaccines Operation Center (NVOC), the Authority was able to extend assistance to neighboring local government units of the National Capital Region in their vaccination drives.
He also supervised the Public-Private Partnership program that facilitated the construction of the MMDA’s new headquarters in Ortigas, Pasig City which is set to be finished by this year.
Meanwhile, MMDA Undersecretary Frisco S. San Juan Jr. was also appointed as General Manager concurrent to being the agency’s deputy chairman.
San Juan vowed to assist the Chairman in formulating projects, resolutions and regulations that will benefit Metro Manila and its residents.
