(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Wilma Eisma as its chair.
With the appointment, Duterte effectively replaced Martin Diño as SBMA chairman.
It was still unclear, however, if Diño would be given another role in the agency.
Eisma’s appointment came after President Duterte signed Executive Order No. 42, which effectively repealed EO 340 that specified that powers be split between the SBMA chair and the administrator.
With the signing of EO 42, those powers were consolidated under the chair.
President Duterte’s move also comes amid reports of a simmering leadership dispute between Diño and Eisma.
Diño ran for president in the 2016 elections under the PDP-Laban party, but paved the way for the candidacy of then-Davao mayor Duterte at the last minute.