Leoncio Evasco Jr.

Leoncio "Jun" Badilla Evasco Jr. (born March 29, 1944) Before he was appointed as the Cabinet secretary, he was the Mayor of Maribojoc town in Bohol from 2007 to 2016. He was an ordained priest, being ordained in 1970, when he joined the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army, in 1974.

Early life and education Evasco was born in Maribojoc in Bohol province on March 29, 1944. He finished his AB degree in Philosophy and Theology in Seminario Mayor de San Carlos in Cebu City in 1966 and 1970, respectively. He obtained a master's degree in Ateneo de Davao University. A raid by soldiers in his convent in Catigbian in 1974 pushed him to join the underground Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army. In 1983 he was caught while presiding over the wedding of a comrade in Midsayap, North Cotabato. He was tortured and four of his those arrested with him was summarily executed. Evasco was prosecuted by then prosecutor Rodrigo Duterte for rebellion. Following the EDSA People Power Revolution he was one of the political detainees ordered released from jail by then President Cory Aquino.