Benjamin Diokno

Benjamin Diokno served as secretary of the Department of Finance under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from July 2022 to January 2024.

Marcos moved Diokno to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as a member of its Monetary Board for a six-year term beginning January 2024. Diokno previously headed the BSP as governor from March 2019 to June 2022.

He was also a secretary of the Department of Budget and Management in two administrations – under Joseph Estrada from 1998 to 2001 and under Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2019. During the presidency of Corazon Aquino, Diokno served as DBM undersecretary for budget operations.

Diokno came under scrutiny during his time as Duterte’s budget chief, over alleged anomalies in the 2018 and 2019 budgets. He denied influencing the approval of billions of pesos worth of infrastructure projects.

Diokno obtained his bachelor’s degree in public administration in 1968 and master’s degree in public administration in 1970 from the University of the Philippines. He also completed a master’s degree in economics from UP in 1974, a master’s degree in political economy from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in 1976, and a doctorate in economics from Syracuse University in New York in 1981. He was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2017 by UP, where he is also professor emeritus.