Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo: AFP/VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte named a lawyer as head of the newly-established Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on July 1.
The President granted a decision to appoint Rodolfo Salalima as ICT Minister and described him as an IT expert, an activist advocating the rights of the poor and a senior civil servant.
Salalima was a former executive of a private Philippine telecommunications firm. He held the position as chief legal counsellor and vice president for corporate and regulatory affairs until his retirement in 2008.
He is now serving as vice chair of the Philippines’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) council working group, which drafted the amendments to the ITU constitution and convention in Geneva, Switzerland.
The new ICT department was set up as approved by the country’s Congress and former President Benigno Aquino III shortly before he stepped down from office.-VNA
