President Rodrigo Duterte’s longtime trusted adviser and former campaign manager is back in government.

Malacañang announced on Wednesday, December 2, that Leoncio “Jun” Evasco Jr has been appointed Presidential Adviser on Streamlining of Government Processes “with the rank of Secretary.”

Duterte signed the appointment on November 24.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Evasco’s experience as Duterte’s Cabinet Secretary will help him in his new role.

“His familiarity with the present bureaucracy would contribute greatly in his new task of streamlining government processes in the Executive,” said Roque.

Evasco served as Duterte’s Cabinet Secretary from his first day as President in June 2016 until October 2018 when he filed his candidacy for governor of Bohol. Evasco lost to another Duterte ally, Arthur Yap.

Evasco’s stint in Malacañang was not without controversy. (READ: Jun Evasco, the former NPA rebel in the Palace ‘snake pit’)

He was at loggerheads with National Food Authority administrator Jason Aquino on the method for rice importation. Evasco, who supervised Aquino as chairman of the National Food Authority Council, had championed private-led importation, believing it to be less prone to corruption. Duterte’s economic advisers also preferred private-led importation.

Aquino, however, wanted government-to-government importation where the Philippines would purchase in bulk from the governments of Vietnam, Thailand, and the like. Duterte eventually stripped Evasco of his role as NFAC chairman. Months later, the President claimed Aquino wanted to leave his post.

In April 2019, the Ombudsman ordered Aquino’s dismissal for grave misconduct over the smuggling of millions worth of Vietnamese rice. Duterte, who has constantly railed against supposedly corrupt officials, has so far never publicly slammed Aquino for his alleged involvement in smuggling.

Presidential adviser on telecommunications

Duterte has tapped Ramon “RJ” Jacinto as Presidential Adviser for Telecommunications, with the rank of secretary. This is a promotion from his previous role as undersecretary at the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Prior to the DICT post, Jacinto was already Duterte’s presidential adviser but on economic affairs and information technology.

Jacinto’s new presidential adviser role specifies that he will have inputs on telecommunications, a favorite pet peeve of Duterte’s. In his State of the Nation Address last July, Duterte threatened a government takeover of telco players Smart Communications and Globe Telecom if they don’t improve their services.

He gave them until this month, December, to comply with his ultimatum. On Wednesday, Roque had asked the two firms to submit a list of new telco towers they’ve managed to construct or any proof that their services have improved.

Malacañang announced the appointments of Evasco and Jacinto a week after the appointment of another Duterte adviser – former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Presidential Adviser on Clark Programs and Projects. – Rappler.com