President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has picked Robert Joseph de Claro, the president and CEO of the Social Security System (SSS), to run the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), succeeding Henry Aguda, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) says. “I have already signed the ad interim appointment of the new DICT secretary,” Marcos said in an interview at the Palace on October 13th.
Marcos credited de Claro with “a very strong background in terms of the digital economy and the digital world.” He represented the SSS on the board of Union Bank and chairs the board of Union Digital Bank, Marcos said.
The SSS’s own profile of him, dated April 2025, adds a computer science degree with a specialization in IT from De La Salle University. It also has him on the board of telecom company PLDT for the SSS.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced Aguda’s exit on October 10th, before Marcos could, as we reported. A day later in Singapore, Marcos said the Ombudsman “spilled the beans” and tied the early reveal to the investigation “on the ghost connectivity projects.”
The Ombudsman is investigating alleged “ghost internet” DICT projects, including internet sites that don’t work and substandard equipment and services, the PCO’s September 25th release says. Marcos didn’t say Aguda himself is a subject of the probe.
As DICT secretary, de Claro also chairs the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), the agency that blocked Discord for a day in September. And the House’s version of a kids’ social media ban, passed on October 12th, would put its enforcement office, the SAFE Kids Office, inside the DICT, under the secretary’s supervision.
