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Eastern Samar, there is an island paradise called San Vicente,
named after a Spanish priest who was the chaplain in that
barangay. The barangay is also home to the San Vicente Elementary
School, which produced an honor graduate, Ben P. Evardone,
who made it big in the national arena, despite of the fact that his
parents were just ordinary farmers. In fact, his
parents were so poor that they could not send their seven
children to high school, but due to self-support, poverty
did not deter him and his siblings from securing college diplomas.
When Gov. Evardone
entered college, he became editor of the Dawn, the official
student newspaper of the University of the East (UE). At that
time, it was the biggest weekly student newspaper in South
East Asia in terms of circulation. After his stint as editor,
he became the president of the central student council. At
that time, UE was also the biggest university in the Far East
with a population of over 80,000. While he was very active
in extra-curricular activities, he was still able to maintain
his studies by undertaking a course in Business Administration.
It was during his student
activism days that he developed his political views in his
pursuit for nationalism, freedom, justice and democracy.
While his educational
background centered on business administration (he also completed
a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration), the first
job he landed was that of a journalist. It was while he was
a senior political reporter and columnist of Malaya, that
former President Aquino appointed him as assistant secretary
of the Department of Transportation and Communications. Later
on, he was appointed as executive secretary in the Office
of the President of the Philippines. At 27, he was the youngest
person in Philippine history to hold a sub-cabinet level position.
After completing his
service in Malacañang, he held various consultancy
positions, including the Office of the Senate President, Smart
Communications, PLDT, AMA Group of Companies, and GSIS.
He also set up several
companies mostly in the telecommunications industry.
One of those companies, which is based in Hong Kong, centers
around the internet technology called voice over internet
protocol (VOIP), which enables consumers to make international
calls through the internet at much lower cost.
Now,
Gov. Evardone is on his second term as local chief executive
of the Province of Eastern Samar. He is also the secretary-general
of the League of Provinces of the Philippines and a member
of the National Executive Board as a Board-Member-at-Large.
He also sits in the Quedancor as the permanent representative
of the LPP.
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