MANILA (UPDATE) — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has named David John Thaddeus Alba as the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) acting administrator, Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez confirmed Saturday.

Rodriguez also confirmed that Pablo Luis Azcona and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag were appointed as SRA board members to represent the sugar planters and sugar millers, respectively.

Marcos, who heads the agriculture department, earlier this week said he would reorganize the SRA following the resignation of three officials and board members who signed an unauthorized sugar import resolution.

• Marcos to 'reorganize' SRA amid sugar import mess, leave probe up to Congress

Alba replaced former SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica, who resigned this week for signing the order that the Palace deemed "illegal."

• What the probe into the sugar import mess aims to determine

Last week, Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian was the first to resign, acknowledging to lapses he made for signing the document on behalf of Marcos.

SRA board member Roland Beltran also stepped down.

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles had said that resignations would not mean that officials would be off the hook from possible complaints.

All those who signed are still under investigation, which will be headed by Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs Atty. Richard Palpalatoc, she said.

WHO IS ALBA?

Alba is the general manager of the Asociacion de Agricultores de La Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. (AALCPI), based on a news report published by state-run Philippine News Agency in February.

AALCPI is considered the biggest independent sugar group in Negros Occidental, with at least 10,000 sugar farmer members, a report showed.

The bloc had criticized Serafica for allowing the importation of 200,000 metric tons of refined sugar through Sugar Order No. 3 earlier this year, as stakeholders were supposedly not consulted with the move.

- with a report from Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News