Evasco is new HUDCC chief

MANILA, Philippines — Cabinet Secretary and President Rodrigo Duterte’s former campaign manager Leoncio Evasco Jr. is set to replace Vice President Leni Robredo as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), Malacañang announced Monday.

 

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Evasco’s appointment as housing chief is on top of his responsibilities as secretary to the Cabinet and supervisor to a dozen agencies.

 

The appointment was announced after Monday’s Cabinet meeting in Malacañang, the first after Robredo resigned from the HUDCC. 

 

RELATED: Robredo tenders resignation from Duterte's Cabinet

 

Robredo, who assumed as HUDCC chief last July, quit because of “differences” with the president.

 

FULL TEXT: Robredo on why she is resigning from Duterte's Cabinet

 

A former rebel priest and mayor of Maribojoc, Bohol, Evasco was said to have been considered for the Interior secretary post but Duterte claimed he is not qualified due to his previous ties with communist guerillas. 

 

Evasco, along with Duterte’s long-time aide Christopher Go, was given extensive supervisory powers in the president’s first ever executive order.

 

The order, which reorganized the Office of the President, gave Evasco supervision over the Cooperative Development Authority, the HUDCC, National Anti-Poverty Commission, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, National Youth Commission, Office of the President – Presidential Action Center, Philippine Commission on Women, Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor and the Technical Education Skills Development Authority, as well the the Philippine Coconut Authority and the National Food Authority, two agencies that used to belong to the Agriculture department. 

 

“These agencies shall primarily evaluate existing poverty reduction programs and, if deemed necessary, formulate a more responsive set of programs complementing existing ones, channeling resources as necessary to reduce both the incidence and magnitude of poverty,” Duterte’s order read.

 

The agencies were also tasked to develop programs and projects designed to reduce poverty and promote “social education” that would allow the people “to participate in effecting real change by keeping watch of the affairs of the government.”