Florencio “Butch” Abad previously served as the Secretary (Minister) of the Department of Budget and Management of the Republic of the Philippines (2010-2016). He also served the Liberal Party as the National Campaign Manager and worked in the transition team of then President-elect Noynoy Aquino in 2010. He was a member of the House of Representatives elected in 1987 to represent the Lone District of Batanes. He was re-elected in 1995, 1998 and 2001. He became president of the Liberal Party of the Philippines from 1999 to 2004 and chairperson of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats in 1999. He served as Secretary (Minister) of Agrarian Reform during the first Aquino administration and served as Secretary of Education under the Arroyo administration. His stint as Education Secretary was cut short in 2005 when he resigned from his post due to the electoral fraud controversy charged against then President Arroyo. Butch finished his Bachelor of Science in Business Management, and Bachelor of Laws at the Ateneo de Manila University and passed the Bar Examination in 1985. A fellow of the Edward Mason Program in Public Policy and Management at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Butch also holds a Masters in Public Administration degree.
