12 NOVEMBER 2007

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EVARDONE EVENTUALLY became Malaya’s senior political reporter and columnist, covering the House of Representatives. Macasaet says Evardone became quite close to then House Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr., himself a former journalist.

But it was then Pangasinan congressman Oscar Orbos who in 1990 recruited Evardone to be an assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation and Communications, which Orbos had been tapped to head. Evardone also joined Orbos at the Palace when then President Corazon Aquino appointed the latter as executive secretary.

Orbos quit the Cabinet in July 1991, while Evardone went on to become a PR consultant for several companies and institutions. According to an official write-up on him, he later “set up several companies mostly in the telecommunications industry,” including one based in Hong Kong. But somehow he found his way back to politics, and ran for governor of Eastern Samar for the first time in 2004.

Yet Orbos seems to be less than pleased with what Evardone has achieved. Refusing to be called the governor’s mentor, he told PCIJ in a recent interview, “Excuse me. I just recruited him. After that, people walk their own walk.”

“He must have been an idealist in his younger years,” observes a media strategist of Evardone, “but he embraced politics too much.”

The governor’s former college mate, for his part, says he was not surprised at all when he heard that Evardone was somehow involved in the Palace fiasco. But he says the father of two “is a good person” who is merely trying to “survive politics” for his constituents. He adds that Evardone is the type people cling to when they are desperate.

“He won’t die for them,” says Evardone’s ex-schoolmate. “He’s too smart for that, but he will achieve the objective.”

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