Ms. Janet B. Abuel is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Lawyer placing first (topnotcher) in the Philippine Bar Examinations held in 1998 with a rating of 91.80%. She also holds a degree in Master in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, and has attended the Executive Education Program on Driving Government Performance at the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
She rose from the ranks in the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) from a Budget and Management Analyst in 1996 to Director IV in 1999. She held the position of Director IV for about 12 years in the Department’s Legal and Legislative Service for 2 years, then as Regional Director of the DBM Regional Office I for 10 years, until she was promoted to Assistant Secretary in 2012. Last year, she was promoted to Undersecretary.
As Assistant Secretary, she handled diverse assignments of assisting the Undersecretary for Operations in the supervision of the Bureau in charge of policy formulation and concerns of local government units (LGUs), the Project Management Office on LGU Public Financial Management (PMO on LGU PFM), and other local and regional concerns, including overseeing the DBM Regional Offices.
For a period, she took the reins of the Corporate Affairs Group, particularly supervising the Administrative Service, and the Financial and Management Service of the DBM. She also directly supervised the Department Legislative Liaison Office in Congress (House of Representatives and Senate).
From 2012 to October 2015, she had been the Chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the Department.
As Undersecretary, she was designated to head the establishment of the Office of the Comptroller General, and oversee the Bureau in charge of policy formulation and concerns of LGUs, the PMO on LGU PFM, and other local and regional concerns, and supervise the DBM Regional Offices.
In view of her work, knowledge and experience, Undersecretary Abuel has participated as a Philippine Representative, and mostly a Presenter, in various trainings, seminars and activities held in the Philippines and abroad, particularly in Washington D.C., U.S.A.; Mexico City, Mexico; Bangkok, Thailand; Seoul, South Korea; London; Beijing, China; Singapore; and Kathmandu, Nepal.
As a lawyer, Atty. Abuel had shared her legal knowledge by teaching law and as a Bar Reviewer in Bar Review Methods and Techniques, both for about 11 years until 2010. She also authored the handbook, Bar Review Methods and Techniques, 2003 edition. Â