A familiar face in a former Malacañang economic team has found himself a new perch — and not just any seat but at the head of the table.

Word from the corporate secretary’s office: a listed conglomerate’s board, short one member after a lawyer’s exit, huddled this week and did what boards do when they want adult supervision.

They brought in a former Cabinet man, eight decades old, but sharp as ever, and made him Lead Independent Director.

Old habits, Nosy Tarsee notes, die hard. The man ran a crucial agency for six years under the last administration, shepherding tax reform packages through a Congress that didn’t always want to cooperate.

Before that, he wore another hat. And before that, he held three Cabinet portfolios across two administrations — which makes him indispensable in decision-making. But it’s the board committee assignments that have Nosy Tarsee’s antennae twitching. Our man didn’t just get a board seat and a ceremonial title. He chairs the Board Risk Oversight Committee, with a fellow independent director and one more name filling out the trio.

Tarsee has seen this movie before. Cabinet secretaries retire from government and the private sector suddenly discovers deep reserves of affection for their “four decades of experience across the public and private sectors.”

This one’s resume reads like a greatest hits reel — banking, power, aviation, mining, hospitality, real estate, an alphabet soup of past directorships at a flag carrier, a smelting outfit, a power corp, even the country’s largest electric utility. Credentials that don’t gather dust.

The company won’t say it out loud, but placing a former economic top dog atop your risk and audit apparatus sends a message to regulators, creditors, and rating agencies alike: adult supervision has arrived, and it has a direct line to people who used to sign off on fiscal policy.

Nosy Tarsee knows gravitas doesn’t come cheap.