José María Clemente "Joey" Salceda is a Filipino politician and the current Representative of Albay's 2nd District in the Philippine House of Representatives. He previously served as governor of Albay province in the Philippines. Prior to that, he was a three-year term representative of the Third District of Albay and was appointed as Presidential Chief of Staff on February 10, 2007 after the resignation of Michael Defensor before he himself resigned on March 29, 2007 to pursue his gubernatorial bid in his province. He was member of the one of two dominant parties known as the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, although it was known that he ran for governor and won as an independent in the 2007 elections. In 2010, he left Lakas-Kampi-CMD and joined the Liberal Party and became the party's Bicol regional chair. In 2016, Salceda, who will run as Representative of the 2nd District of Albay in the elections, has decided to bolt out of the Liberal Party and resigned as the party's chairman for Bicol to support the presidential candidacy of Grace Poe. He later defects to PDP-Laban.
Prior to his stint in the House of Representatives, Salceda was a Congressional Fellow to the late Speaker Ramon Mitra and Chief of Staff to the late Senator Raul Roco. He was voted by foreign fund managers in Asiamoney's Annual Survey as "Best Analyst" in 1995 and "Best Economist" for four consecutive years from 1993 to 1996. Salceda brought to Congress a wealth of experience from the financial markets and the field of economics. During his term of office, he was able to enact three important measures. He was the principal sponsor and co-author, respectively, of Republic Act No. 8751 or the Countervailing Duty Act, Republic Act No. 8752 or the Anti-Dumping Duty Act, and Republic Act No. 8800 or the Safeguard Measures Act. These measures are critical in allowing the country realize the full benefits of its membership in the World Trade Organization and at the same time protect domestic farmers. Salceda was also fondly regarded as the "Founding Father of Ligao City" after his successful sponsorship of the measure converting the municipality of Ligao into a component city under Republic Act No. 9008. In recognition of his economic expertise, he held several key positions in the 11th Congress, a rare feat for a neophyte congressman. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Trade and Industry and vice chair of the Committees on Ways and Means and Economic Affairs. He was the lone Lower House representative to the Coordinating Council for Private Sector Participation or CCPSP. Before joining the legislature, Salceda was the Research Director of UBS Warburg. While with UBS, he was voted among the top five analysts in a 1996 survey of Philippine fund managers. He also served as Research Director of Barings Securities Phils. for five years. During his term, the Barings research team was voted number one in 12 international surveys of fund managers. He also garnered several awards for his distinguished performance in the field of financial markets research. On January 18, 2008, Salceda and the Department of Science and Technology Estrella Alabastro relaunched one of the country's four P 18-million upper-air receiving equipment in Albay. The other upper-air receiving stations are in Laoag City, Cebu, and Tanay, Rizal.
Criticisms
In 2008, jueteng whistleblower Sandra Cam accused Salceda of receiving jueteng protection money. In a statement in 2008, Salceda did not comment on Cam's accusation and instructed the Albay police director, Senior Superintendent Joel Baloro to communicate with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office to stop small town lottery in Albay following allegations that is being used as front for jueteng. Baloro said that there were no organized jueteng in the province and that they were verifying reports whether STL operations were used as a front for jueteng.
