Bench exec named special envoy to South Korea

PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. has named an executive of the Suyen Corporation, the firm behind the brand Bench, as his special envoy for trade and investment to South Korea and a former

Executive of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority as commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the Presidential Communications Office announced yesterday.

The PCO, in a Facebook post, said Bryan C. Lim, the vice president for business development of Suyen Corp., shall serve as the special envoy of the President to the Republic of Korea for Trade and Investment while former MMDA Traffic Operations Chief Angelito S. Vergel de Dios will serve as commissioner of the PCGG.

Reports said Lim started serving as vice president of Suyen Corp in 1996, or shortly after he graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science (BS) in Industrial Engineering from De La Salle University in 1995. He is also a member of the board of directors of Orca Cold Chain Solutions, a company introducing technology and innovation to the supply chain management industry.

Suyen Corp., apart from its flagship brand Bench, has interests in food, furniture, and real estate.

In a report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) in August 2022, Lim was identified as a supposed campaign donor of then newly-elected President Marcos Jr. He reportedly donated P20 million in cash to Marcos’ presidential campaign.

The PCO said De Dios will join the PCGG as commissioner. The PCGG is a quasi-judicial government agency mandated to recover the alleged ill-gotten wealth supposedly accumulated by the late president, father and namesake of the incumbent Chief Executive, Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The PCO said the President also reappointed Julius Neri Jr. as the general manager and chief executive officer of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority MCIAA. He also remains a member of the MCIAA Board of Directors.

Neri, a former president of SunStar Publishing Inc., initially served as a member of the MCIAA Board of Directors since 2016 and later as acting general manager.

He was first appointed as general manager of MCIAA in 2021 by then-President Rodrigo Duterte and retained the position under