President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed the cousin of his partner, Honeylet Avanceña, to a new government position months after firing her last year.

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In an appointment paper dated March 7 and released on Friday, Duterte appointed Melissa Avanceña Aradanas as deputy secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

She replaced Patrocinio Jude Esguerra III.

Aradanas was one of the five Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) commissioners who were fired, together with agency chair Terry Ridon, due to excessive foreign trips.

Duterte said he had fired all PCUP commissioners because they had not met as a collegial body and that the commissioners were notorious for junkets abroad.

“Pati siya tinanggal ko, but I told my wife, ‘You call your cousin and say, alis sila,” he said during a speech before the members of the Malacañang Press Corps.

READ: Honeylet’s cousin among those sacked by Duterte /muf

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