The Corporate Secretary
Atty. Perla Melanie C. Caraan is the Bank’s Corporate Secretary. Prior to her designation as such in July 2017, she had been the Bank’s Chief Governance Officer and Head of the Corporate Governance Office (CGO) from 2012 to June 2017. During this period, she spearheaded the revision and implementation of major Bank policies such as the Revised Manual of Corporate Governance and No Gift Policy. Likewise, she supervised and coordinated the holding of DBP Corporate Governance Month, the annual DBP Good Governance Forum as well as the Bank’s participation in Integrity Initiative, Performance Governance System (PGS) and Islands of Good Governance. As a result of these initiatives, DBP was the first government bank to be rated/validated “Advanced” during the 2013 Integrity Summit; the Bank won the Corporate Governance Award during the ADFIAP Awards 2015 in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; and, granted Silver Governance Trailblazer Awards for both Compliance (2014) and Proficiency (2015) stages of the PGS.
She joined the Bank in 1993 as Attorney IV with the rank of Assistant Manager at the then Office of the Legal Counsel (now Legal Services Group) where she served as Litigation lawyer for 15 years, winning 100% of the Bank’s cases she handled before regular courts and up to the Supreme Court. In 2009, she was promoted to the position of Department Manager III with the rank of Senior Assistant Vice President and designated as Head of the Administrative Discipline Unit. In 2012, she was appointed as Vice President and designated as Head of the Corporate Governance Office and concurrent Officer-In-Charge of the Human Resource Management until February 2013. She also served as DBP-PF Corporate Secretary from 2009-2012 and IGLF Technical Advisory Group Member and Corporate Secretary in 2012.
Prior joining the Bank, she worked as an Associate Lawyer at a private law firm, RTC Legal Researcher, Supervising Legislative Officer at the House of Representatives (Congress), and Court Attorney V at the Court of Appeals.
She graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1981 and Bachelor of Laws in 1985 from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City and became a full-fledged lawyer after passing the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1986. She was conferred Career Service Executive Eligibility by the Civil Service Commission in 2004.