Jose Rene Dimataga Almendras (born March 12, 1960, Cebu City) is a Filipino businessman and public servant.

He served as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs in an acting capacity under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

[2] Before and after being appointed by Benigno Aquino III as Energy secretary, Almendras became the president of Manila Water of the Ayala Corporation group.

He said that the energy reform agenda was necessary because we (the Philippines) cannot afford band-aid solutions, it is important that every action we take today has a long-term strategic view."

This is why, during the last APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Conference, a resolution was passed which stated that there should be no more subsidizing of hydrocarbons or petroleum.

On December 8, 2011, at the Investor Breakfast Meeting[7] during World Geothermal Energy Summit organised by the Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics and Arc Media Global, Almendras addressed investor concerns on streamlining the permit process by government regulators as shorter project periods would reduce uncertainty for policy and market dynamics when modeling economic returns and more importantly the implementation of feed-in-tariffs (“FiT”) rates and guidelines for renewable portfolio standards for renewable energy (“RE”).,[8][9] Almendras supports a free market model.