MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has ended a months-long standoff at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority with his Executive Order No. 42 appointing Wilma “Amy” T. Eisma as both SBMA chairperson and administrator.
Eisma’s chairmanship of the agency also resulted in the ouster of Martin Diño, the PDP-Laban party-mate of the chief executive, who in October 2015 withdrew his candidacy for president and named Duterte as his substitute.
READ RELATED STORY: Diño says he ‘respects’ DU30 ‘prerogative’ to name his rival as SBMA chief, but sues her just the same
Unlike Diño, former chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and father of actress and Film Development Council of the Philippines chair Liza Diño-Seguerra, Eisma’s name doesn’t ring a bell with the public.
Who is the woman that gained the President’s confidence to become the sole top official of the agency that operates the 67,000-hectare Subic Bay Freeport?
Eisma, a lawyer, who finished her law degree at the Ateneo de Manila University in 1993, was born and raised in Olongapo City in Zambales, where the freeport is located.
After passing the bar exam, Eisma joined the SBMA in 1993 as executive assistant to then Chairman Richard Gordon and member of the agency’s legal department.
She stayed at SBMA until 1998 and represented the office in local judicial courts and also oversaw the agency’s housing department by managing its negotiations and collections.
From 1998 to 2000, Eisma worked as head executive assistant and legal counsel of then House Majority Leader and Capiz representative Manuel “Mar” Roxas II before becoming chief of staff from 2000 to 2001 of Roxas, when the latter was appointed secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry by then President Joseph Estrada.
She then moved to the private sector and worked with Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corporation, Inc., the Philippine affiliate of Philip Morris International. Eisma worked as sustainability and contributions manager of PMFTC, chaired by business tycoon Lucio Tan.
She stayed in the company for 16 years and received the PMI President’s Award in 2005 as manager for government relations. She also earned the PMI Excellence Award in 2003, 2007, and 2011.
In December 2016, Eisma was appointed by Duterte as SBMA administrator, replacing Roberto Garcia. Nine months later, she also replaced Diño as the agency’s chair.
