Kim Robert C. de Leon, assistant professor at the UP Diliman (UPD) National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), has been appointed as Department of Budget and Management (DBM) secretary, and took his oath of office on May 19 at the Malacañang Palace.
Prior to his appointment as DBM chief, de Leon served as its undersecretary from 2021 to 2022, handling the Organization and Systems Improvement Group and Information, and the Communications Technology Group. He was also undersecretary for administration and finance at the Department of Transportation from 2022 to 2024.
De Leon teaches courses on public accounting and budgeting, governmental auditing and financial control, local government and regional administration, and local and regional development planning. He is an NCPAG fellow under the Governance Reform Innovation, and Transformation Collaboratory (GRIT Lab), where his works center on public sector integrity, local government risk financing, and anti-corruption initiatives.
According to a post in the UPD NCPAG Facebook page, de Leon played a key role in the GRIT Lab’s studies on unprogrammed allocations and the identifications of anomalous flood control projects through use of artificial intelligence. The same post supported his appointment and expressed confidence that he will bring to the position a strong background in governance theory and practice, particularly in public financial management, governance reform, and institutional accountability.
De Leon earned his Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration, magna cum laude, from UPD in 2014. That same year, he received the Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Mag-aaral. He obtained his Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning, from UPD in 2019, his Certificate on Business Process Management from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, in 2021, and his Master of Public Safety Administration from the Philippine Public Safety College in 2022. — With reports from NCPAG