Trusted Duterte lieutenant Evasco returns to Cabinet

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang confirmed on Wednesday that former Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. was appointed presidential adviser on streamlining of government processes, with the rank of secretary, on Nov. 24.

“[Evasco’s] familiarity with the present bureaucracy would contribute greatly in his new task of streamlining government processes in the Executive,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

Evasco, 76, was a former mayor of Maribojoc town, Bohol province. He was once a communist rebel priest and political detainee who was prosecuted by Duterte when the latter was a government lawyer.

Evasco later served as Duterte’s chief of staff when he became Davao City mayor and congressman. Evasco was also Duterte’s campaign manager during the 2016 presidential elections.

While Cabinet secretary, Evasco also concurrently served as chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, but he resigned in October 2018 to run for Bohol governor. He was defeated in the elections the following year.

Meanwile, Roque also confirmed that Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Ramon Jacinto was appointed presidential adviser for telecommunications, also with the rank of secretary, on Nov. 25.

Telco adviser

“We are … confident that Presidential Adviser Jacinto would ably and effectively discharge his duties in this new assignment,” Roque said.

Jacinto was appointed DICT undersecretary for government digital broadcast television and the digitization of the entertainment industry sector last May and assumed office three months later.

He campaigned for Duterte in the 2016 presidential elections and was appointed presidential adviser on economic affairs and information technology the same year.

A musician and businessman, Jacinto, 75, is the founder and chair of the Philippine rock-and-roll station dzRJ and Rajah Broadcasting Network. He also served as board chair of the Philippine Communications Satellite Corp.

Jacinto was also the vice chair of the Presidential Committee on Flagship Programs and Projects during President Fidel Ramos’ administration.