Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Acting Secretary Kim Robert C. De Leon visited the Government Procurement Policy Board – Technical Support Office (GPPBTSO) in Diliman, Quezon City, on Thursday, 2 July 2026, where he formally announced the appointment of Atty. Rowena Candice M. Ruiz as the agency’s Director General (DG). DG Ruiz is the Executive Director V of the GPPB-TSO who worked on the passage of the New Government Procurement Act.
During the visit, DBM Acting Secretary De Leon reaffirmed the Department’s full support for the GPPB-TSO and its vital role in advancing a transparent, efficient, and accountable public procurement system.
In her message, DG Ruiz expressed her gratitude to DBM Acting Secretary De Leon and the GPPB-TSO team for their warm welcome and continued support. She reaffirmed the reform agenda, she has championed since assuming leadership of the GPPB-TSO in 2018, for a more proactive, responsive, agile, innovative, sustainable, and efficient (PRAISE) public procurement system through evidence-based policymaking, digital transformation, procurement professionalization, and stronger collaboration with stakeholders.
DG Ruiz likewise shared that she feels very much at home, having continuously served as Executive Director V of the GPPB-TSO prior to her appointment as the first Director General pursuant to the change in the position title under Republic Act No. 12009. She emphasized that the appointment represents not a return to the Office, but the continuation of the reforms and initiatives that she had led over the years.
The appointment marks another chapter for the GPPB-TSO as it continues to strengthen institutional capacity and champion procurement reforms that promote transparency, innovation, value for money, accountability, and good governance.
A globally recognized public leader on good governance, DG Ruiz has been honored as a UK Alumni Awardee for Business and Innovation in (2024), GCash Advocate for Digital Financial Empowerment (2024), GovInsider Woman in GovTech in (2021), and Career Executive Service Board Government Innovation Leader in (various years), to name a few. Throughout her public service, she has championed open government, digital innovation, sustainability, procurement professionalization, and the first to explore the use of beneficial ownership information in public procurement in 2022 —advocacies that significantly influenced the modernization of the Philippine public procurement system under Republic Act No. 12009.
DG Ruiz is a Chevening Scholar (2016-2017) where she pursued her Master of Laws degree with Merit Award from the University of London. She received her Juris Doctor from San Beda University Manila and Bachelor degree from De La Salle University Manila.
