FORMER Pampanga congresswoman Zenaida Ducut was appointed as acting chairperson of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) vice Rodolfo Albano Jr. whose term ended last July 9, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.
Dureza said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also thanked Albano for his "exemplary service to the nation".
"Former congresswoman Zenaida Ducut of Pampanga has been appointed by President Arroyo as acting chairperson of the energy regulatory board as successor of chairman Rodolfo Albano Jr. who has retired from the public service," he said.
Asked why Ducut's title was only "acting chairperson", Dueza said: "It's what's written in the appointment (paper)."
Prior to her appointment to the ERC, Ducut, who hails from Lubao, was the deputy chief presidential legal counsel in Malacañang. She also served as congresswoman of the second district of Pampanga.
Ducut, an alleged business associate of suspected jueteng lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, is one of the incorporators of the Philippine World College, Inc. (PWCI) that was created in 2001.
She is also an incorporator of the Aguman Da Reng Pasabung QNG Capampangan, Inc. - a brotherhood of cockpit operators - that was put up in 1994.
Both PWCI and Aguman Da Reng Pasabung QNG Capampangan, Inc., based on records of the Securities and Exchange Commission, reportedly belong to the Pinedas of Pampanga.
Ducut, 52, is a former clerk of court who later became a lawyer. She graduated Political Science and later Law from the Far Eastern University.
She had been a professor at the University of the Assumption, East Central Colleges and Harvardian Colleges before she entered politics.
On her third and last term as a member of the House, she was vice chairman of the committee on agriculture and member of the committees on bases conversion, games and amusement and inter-parliamentary relations. (JMR/Sunnex)
