Aquino appoints fund manager Vergara as GSIS chief

President Benigno Aquino III has appointed Hong Kong-based fund manager Robert Vergara as the new president and general manager of state pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Before the GSIS appointment, Vergara served as a fund manager and director of Lionhart (Hong Kong) Ltd. specializing in equity arbitrage and relative value trading, according to a report on radio dzBB Monday. Vergara, who replaced Winston Garcia, finished his Master of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and graduated magna cum laude in Bachelor of Science degree in Management Engineering and Mathematics from Ateneo de Manila University. Roman Felipe Reyes, Danilo Gozo, and George Yu were appointed as members of the GSIS board of trustees, according to the report. Appointed as the new Land Bank of the Philippines’ board members were Domingo Diaz and Tomas De Leon Jr. who will represent agrarian reform beneficiaries and the private sector, respectively, dzBB said. New commissioners appointed to the pension fund for private sector workers — Social Security System — were former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Jose L. Cuisia Jr. for the employer’s group and Daniel Edralin and Marianita Mendoza for the worker’s group. The newly installed National Dairy Authority administrator was Grace Cenas, the report said. Ponciano Batugal, Cesar Villariba Jr., Rafael Sarucam, Marcos Dumandan were also appointed as new members of the Philippine Coconut Authority’s governing board. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV