TWO ARTLETS alumni have been appointed to offices performing vital functions in the government’s seat of power.
UST Legal Management instructor Dennis Santiago has been named deputy executive secretary for support services and auxiliaries under the Office of the President.
Another Thomasian, Political Science alumnus Arthur Lawrence Los Baños, has been appointed assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), the government’s lead communication arm.
Santiago assumed his post in the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Support Services and Auxiliaries (ODESSA) on Feb. 1. He served as managing director of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and executive director of the budget department’s procurement service.
A lawyer who has been teaching for two decades at the University, Santiago said he aims to strengthen internal support systems within the president’s office during his tenure, particularly in procurement planning, budgeting and contract implementation. He said logistical reforms within the ODESSA would be among his priorities, noting that existing structures still have room for improvement.
“Government work is always an honor to me; It’s also a privilege…Better work and better delivery within the OP (Office of the President) and its constituents will provide for better service to the people,” Santiago told The Flame.
“The procurement planning, budgeting, procurement selection, contract implementation until contract closes out… So we have to look at it carefully,” he added.
ODESSA oversees administrative functions, budget preparation and procurement in the Office of the Executive Secretary.
Santiago graduated with a degree in Philosophy at the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) and earned his law degree from the Arellano University School of Law. He later obtained master’s degrees in US legal studies and public procurement management from the University of Connecticut School of Law and the University of Turin, respectively.
Santiago began his public service in 2011 as executive director for the Government Procurement Policy Board – Technical Support Office under the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) until 2018.
After a stint in private consultancy work, he joined the BSP as managing director in December 2021 and later chaired the central bank’s bids and awards committee. From 2022 to 2024, he served as executive director of the DBM’s procurement service.
In 2024, Santiago was recognized as an outstanding educator in legal management for tenured faculty at the St. Thomas More Excellence Awards.
From migrant worker to government communicator
Los Baños, meanwhile, has been working for the PCO as assistant secretary since Dec. 9 last year.
He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from AB in 1987 before pursuing graduate studies in broadcast communication at the University of the Philippines from 1988 to 1989. Los Baños recently completed a six-month leadership and social entrepreneurship program at the Ateneo School of Government last year.
The PCO official was the features editor of The Flame from 1986 to 1987.
Los Baños is tasked to coordinate with Philippine and global media entities to advance the programs and projects of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. He lived and worked in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for 24 years, his last job being the head of corporate communications for a global energy planning firm.
The assistant secretary said his experience as a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) would help him promote the Philippines as a “viable” investment destination and “exciting” tourist site.
“I would like to encourage overseas-based Filipinos, not only OFWs like me, to be patriotic and help the Marcos administration further develop the Philippine economy to be vibrant and progressive,” Los Baños told The Flame.
Before relocating to Dubai with his wife and son in 2001, Los Baños worked as corporate affairs and communications manager of United Laboratories.
Los Baños received the Philippine Pride Award in Public Relations from the Philippine Business Council – Abu Dhabi chapter in 2019 and the Excellence in Global Public Relations from The Global Filipino Magazine Icon Awards in 2024. F
