VACC founder, PACC chairman Dante Jimenez passes away

PACC chair and ICAD co-chair Dante Jimenez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Dante Jimenez, the founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), has died, VACC president Arsenio “Boy” Evangelista confirmed on Saturday.

Jimenez was 68.

In a Facebook post, Evangelista shared an announcement from Jimenez’s family where it read that the PACC chairman died Friday night due to aortic aneurysm.

“We ask for your prayers for the eternal repose of a man who devoted his life in the crusade against crime and corruption and for good governance. We will miss him so dearly. May he rest in peace,” the family’s statement read.

President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Jimenez as PACC chairman in January 2018.

The PACC, which was established in October 2017 in accordance with Duterte’s Executive Order No. 43, is mandated to “to directly assist the President in investigating and/or hearing administrative cases primarily involving graft and or corruption against all presidential appointees.”

Aside from being PACC chairman, Jimenez was also appointed as co-chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) on February 2020.

His appointment came months after Vice President Leni Robredo was fired from the position, which she held for less than three weeks.

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