Beyond Disclosure: Making Fiscal Governance Work for People in Asia and Pacific

Kim Robert C. De Leon is the youngest Budget Secretary in Philippine history, assuming leadership of the Department of Budget and Management at just 32 years old.

A public servant, educator, and reform advocate, Secretary De Leon has built his career in governance, fiscal management, digital transformation, and institutional reform. He joined the DBM in 2019 as Head Executive Assistant and subsequently served as Director, Assistant Secretary, and Undersecretary. He later served as Undersecretary for Administration and Finance of the Department of Transportation.

Secretary De Leon is also an Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines–National College of Public Administration and Governance and formerly served as Secretary General of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines. He graduated magna cum laude and class valedictorian from UP-NCPAG and earned master’s degrees in Urban and Regional Planning and Public Safety Administration, both with academic honors.

He topped the 2016 Environmental Planning Licensure Examination, became Career Executive Service eligible in 2024, and serves as Rear Admiral of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary. He is also a Guinness World Records holder for the world’s largest collection of papal and scouting stamps.

Dr. Nishan De Mel is one of Sri Lanka’s most respected and influential economists, with extensive academic, public policy and private sector experience.

He played an instrumental role in designing national policies on Health Sector Reform, Social Security and Tobacco & Alcohol. He also served as the Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies and the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. He sits on multiple private sector boards and consults for some of the region’s largest firms.

Nishan completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, and his graduate studies at Oxford University, where he was a Chevening Scholar.

Athiphat Muthitacharoen is a Professor of Economics at Chulalongkorn University and a visiting
fellow at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI). His work examines who pays, who
benefits, and how tax and public spending policies shape economic opportunity and long-term
prosperity. Through empirical research, he seeks to make the costs, benefits, and trade-offs of fiscal policy more visible, supporting policies that are effective, equitable, and accountable to future generations.

Athiphat serves on Thailand’s National Public Debt Policy Board and has advised governments and
international organizations on fiscal policy, taxation, and public finance, including Thailand’s Ministry of Finance, the Revenue Department, the Excise Department, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, UNESCAP, and the Philippines’s Fiscal Incentives Review Board.

Previously, he worked as an economist at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO). He is a 2026 Global Eisenhower Fellow and a recipient of the Richard Musgrave Prize from the National Tax Association, as well as research awards from ADB/IEA and Thailand’s National Research Council.

Meliana Lumbantoruan is Deputy Director of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia, with over a decade of experience working on fiscal governance, transparency, accountability, and public participation in Indonesia’s natural resource and energy sectors. Her work focuses on strengthening public oversight of natural resource revenues and public finance, just energy transition, critical minerals governance, and tax justice. She works across government, parliament, state-owned enterprises, civil society, development partners, and affected communities to strengthen public participation, evidence-based policy reform, and accountability in public resource governance. Meliana is also a Coordinating Committee member of Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia (TAFJA), where she contributes to regional advocacy on tax justice, fiscal transparency, and natural resource revenue governance.