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Former Budget chief Boncodin dies


(Update 7:33 p.m.) Emilia Boncodin, the former secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) under the Arroyo administration, died Monday afternoon due to cardiac arrest. She was 55 years old. Boncodin's death was confirmed by Leah Navarro, convenor of the Black and White Movement, of which Boncodin was a member. "I just want to confirm that Emy Boncodin passed away earlier today at the National Kidney Institute," Navarro told radio dzRH in an interview. Boncodin was among the Cabinet officials who quit their posts in 2005 during the height of the "Hello, Garci" scandal then rocking the Arroyo government.

The scandal refers to the taped conversations of a woman, believed to be President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and a man, believed to be then Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, discussing ways to rig the results of the 2004 elections. No announcement yet on burial plans has been made, Navarro said. Arroyo mourns Malacañang, meanwhile, mourned Boncodin’s death, describing her as an “esteemed" colleague and a “true professional" who “exemplified the lofty ideals of our government service." “She will be sorely missed," said presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo. Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would pay her respect to Boncodin despite their differences in views and stand on certain matters. “Secretary Boncodin was a true professional and a recognized expert in budgets and public finance, and played a key role especially in the fiscal reforms initiated during the initial years of the administration. The President will be paying her respects to the remains of the late secretary once details of the wake are made known," he said. Years with DBM Prior to her appointment as DBM chief in 2001, Boncodin had spent many years with the department. From senior fiscal planning specialist in 1978, she quickly rose to become division chief at age 27, then Director of the then Office of Budget and Management, and then Officer-in-Charge of the Government Corporations Budget Bureau of the reorganized DBM. In 1989, she was appointed as assistant secretary and eventually in 1991 as Undersecretary of DBM. On the side, she was a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines and the Lyceum of the Philippines. A native of Iriga City, Boncodin was a topnotch student since her elementary days as valedictorian of Iriga Central Pilot School and valedictorian of St. Anthony College, also in Iriga City. She was a government scholar at the UP where she completed her BS in Business Administration & Accountancy in 1975. She placed 15th in the CPA Board Examinations that same year. In 1986, she finished her Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University in Cambridge where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow. Among the awards and citations she received in the DBM were Most Outstanding Technical Employee in 1978, and Most Outstanding Division Chief in 1981. She was also the Outstanding Alumna of the UP College of Business Administration in 1992, and an Outstanding Women in Nation's Service Awardee in 1995. She was also the 1996 Dwight Eisenhower Fellow for the Philippines.- KBK/HGS, GMANews.TV
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