President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Karl Kendrick Chua as Socioeconomic Planning Secretary, allowing him to shed the “acting” label that he has carried for a year.

This was announced by Malacañang on Thursday, April 22, nearly a year to the day Chua was named acting socioeconomic planning secretary after the resignation of Ernesto Pernia from the post.

“Secretary Chua has served the Duterte Administration with professionalism, competence, and integrity as Undersecretary of the Department of Finance and Acting Secretary of the NEDA,” said Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque.

The socioeconomic planning secretary is also the head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Chua was a crucial member of Duterte’s economic team during most of the COVID-19 pandemic since Pernia resigned in the early months of the health crisis.

Chua has been a champion of reopening the economy amid the pandemic, repeatedly telling Duterte that hunger and poverty has been growing due to repeated lockdowns. Critics have blamed economic reopening for the recent rise in cases. But Chua had also been supportive of stricter quarantine measures to bring down surges in infections. – Rappler.com