Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson welcomed the appointment of Pablo Luis Azcona as the acting administrator and chief executive officer of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

“It’s good. Again, we’ve always wanted a Negrense to head the SRA,” Lacson told the media yesterday.

The appointment of Azcona, previously the SRA board member representing the sugar planters, was announced by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) earlier.

Hailing from the top sugar-producing province of Negros Occidental, which produces 60 percent of the country’s sugar output, Azcona was named to the post on April 20, according to the PCO.

He took over the reins from Department of Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, who was named officer-in-charge of the SRA, after then acting administrator David John Thaddeus Alba, also a Negrense, stepped down from his post on April 16.

Lacson said he hopes the vacancy left by Azcona will also be occupied by another Negrense.

Alba, Azcona and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag, the board member for sugar millers, took their oath of office before President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in Malacañang in August last year.

On March 24, the PCO announced that Alba had resigned from his post due to “his worsening health condition.”

Alba said had he been in better health, he “would gladly continue with the responsibility entrusted to me by Marcos Jr.”

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve our sugar industry, being the acting administrator of the SRA,” he added. (PNA)