Cusi welcomes appointment of PSALM chief

ENERGY Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi is looking forward to a “productive cooperation” with the newly-appointed head of Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).

On Sunday, PSALM said with the signing by President Rodrigo R. Duterte of Irene Joy Besido Garcia’s appointment papers, its board of directors held a special meeting on May 25 for her election.

“PSALM can now move full steam ahead and I look forward to a productive cooperation between our agencies,” Mr. Cusi said, when asked to comment on Ms. Garcia’s as director, president and executive officer of the state agency tasked to privatize the government power generation assets.

“I welcome the appointment,” he said, despite reports that he had not been agreeable to her holding the post.

In a statement, PSALM said Ms. Garcia will lead the agency in “optimizing the proceeds from the sale of power generation and real estate assets, settling the outstanding financial obligations and liabilities of PSALM and administering the Universal Charge among other urgent matters.”

Before her appointment as PSALM’s president and CEO, Ms. Garcia worked in a full-service law firm for more than 19 years with her legal expertise ranging from litigation to corporate law.

She was a senior partner at the Kapunan Garcia and Castillo Law Offices from 2006 to 2017 and served as the managing partner from 2011 to 2014, “taking charge of administrative and operational concerns of the firm.”

The PSALM statement described Ms. Garcia as a “luminary in corporate law with vast exposure in complex commercial cases, securities transactions, due diligence examinations, franchising, joint ventures and special corporate projects.”

She also served as a member of the board of directors of the International Lawyers Network, an association of legal experts with presence in 66 countries, it added.

Ms. Garcia obtained both her BA Communication Research, cum laude in 1994 and Bachelor of Laws in 1998 from the University of the Philippines — Diliman. She passed the 1998 Bar exams. —