President Rodrigo Duterte just appointed former Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat as the new Tourism secretary following Wanda Tulfo-Teo’s resignation on Tuesday, May 8.
Romulo-Puyat handled the Department of Agriculture’s administration, marketing, and regional engagement for 11 years.
Earlier on the same day, former Tourism Secretary Tulfo-Teo handed her resignation to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, which was written “after a long and deliberate reflection and soul-searching with respect to the events that have transpired the past few weeks.”
She has been on the hot seat lately because of a P60-M advertisement controversy. According to a Commission on Audit report, the Department of Tourism made a multimillion-peso advertisement placement on the show of her brothers Ben and Erwin Tulfo, which airs on state-run channel People’s Television Network Inc.
Accused of conflict interest, Tulfo-Teo was urged to leave the Duterte’s cabinet out of delicadeza.
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