Perfecto Yasay Jr. (27 January 1947 – 12 June 2020) was Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines from 30 June 2016 to 8 March 2017, succeeding Jose Rene Almendras and preceding Enrique Manalo.
Biography[]
Perfecto Yasay Jr. was born in Kidapawan, Mindanao, Philippines on 27 January 1947, and, after learning his law degree in the Philippines, he emigrated to the United States and became a member of the bar of New York and of the US Supreme Court. He managed Maceda Philippine News from 1983 to 1987 and was a senior partner at two law firms, but he later returned to the Philippines and served as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1995 to 2000. In 2009, he was the Bangon Pilipinas' vice-presidential candidate under the televangelist Eddie Villanueva. However, he went on to serve in Rodrigo Duterte's cabinet as acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017, supporting the realignment of the Philippines away from the United States, whose "carrot and stick" diplomacy he opposed. However, his confirmation as Secretary of Foreign Affairs failed due to concerns about his past US citizenship, and he died in 2020.