ARIEL FRANCISCO NEPOMUCENO welcomed the job given by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as the new Administrator III, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in the Department of National Defense, noting that he’s really up for the task.
Nepomuceno said he is really happy for the trust and confidence given by the Marcos Administration after he formally took oath at the Office of the Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin last Wednesday inside Malacañang.
“The environment at the Office of Civil Defense is a real working job and not easy so I immediately went yesterday to the office to start working after my oath-taking,” Nepomuceno, the 57-year-old former member of the Philippine Military Academy Hinirang Class of 1987, said.
“The task is national and challenging so we have to start working now.”
He formally took over the OCD on Thursday after the turnover ceremonies at the Department of National Defense central office in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
The OCD is vital to the government’s all-out response during times of calamities like floods, typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, among other disasters, in all areas to save more lives through evacuations and relief operations.
The OCD, also under the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, is also the leading government agency in handling reactions and management at the time of calamities or the agency that administers disaster risk reduction and implements a systematic program to lessen and avoid national disasters.
Nepomuceno is not new to the position of the OCD but a sort of ‘homecoming’ since he already served as a director and executive officer there during the time of former president Benigno Aquino 3rd from 2012 to 2013.
He replaced undersecretary Raymundo Ferrer who served for four months as OCD administrator.
“It looks like I’m just fortunately promoted now because I was a deputy before in the OCD at the time of Aquino,” he added. “But as I have said the nature of work in the OCD is very busy, you have to prepare for upcoming calamities and hold your ground during calamities to save the people.”
Nepomuceno, awarded as the “Most Outstanding Graduate of the Social Science” of the University of the Philippines in 1989, also served the Bureau of Customs as deputy commissioner during the time of former Presidents Aquino and Rodrigo Duterte from 2013 to 2017.
During his time at the Bureau of Customs, he and his team risked their lives in seizing billions of pesos worth of drugs and smuggled items. He also ordered the return of the infamous Canada waste to the port of origin, and he was the first to use the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Law.
He was a former Major Reserve in the Air Force from 2006 to 2007, a Magna Cum Laude Graduate of the University of the Philippines, and a holder of an Executive MBA Degree from the Asian Institute of Management prior to his services to the government.