Duterte diehard, De Lima mocker gets Palace job

MANILA, Philippines — A ranking position in Malacañang awaits a vlogger who had switched sides from being a Duterte defender to a Marcos supporter, who once poked fun at Sen. Leila de Lima following her arrest, and who had been convicted of violating the Data Privacy Act.

In an appointment letter dated Sept. 1, President Marcos gave 41-year-old Rey Joseph Nieto the rank of assistant secretary under the office headed by Cabinet Secretary Benhur Abalos.

Nieto was the person behind the now defunct “Thinking Pinoy” blog, which gained a large following during the Duterte years.

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READ: Marcos looks beyond political colors in vlogger’s appointment – Palace

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Netizens saw one of his earliest displays of being a Duterte diehard when he and another social media personality, Mike Lopez, struck a playful, mocking pose outside the Senate office of De Lima, a staunch Duterte critic, in October 2017. This was a few months after she was arrested on drug trafficking charges, all of which later ended in acquittal.

Castro explanation

Explaining Nieto’s appointment, Palace press officer Claire Castro on Wednesday said: “If you can be seen as an asset to the government and help improve the delivery of services of an agency, the President will not hesitate to bring you in.”

Nieto has yet to take his oath as assistant secretary. Castro did not provide details of his official duties, saying the Palace was still awaiting information on the exact scope of his work.

But she said Nieto’s role would be tied to the work of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary (OCS), particularly in reaching out to Filipinos in remote areas.

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In a Facebook post on Tuesday night, Nieto said he would not be handling communications or serve as spokesperson for the OCS.

After the Duterte administration, Nieto shifted allegiance to President Marcos when he took over in 2022. His Thinking Pinoy commentaries also ceased in 2023.

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Prior to his latest appointment, Nieto taught as a part-time instructor at Bulacan State University and had a newspaper column, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In 2017, during the Duterte presidency, the Department of Foreign Affairs hired him as a consultant on strategic communications for migrant workers’ affairs, but he had his contract terminated later that year.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics (first class honors) from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom in June 2026. He attended the University of the Philippines Diliman majoring in Mathematics but later dropped from school in 2005.

Politics as ‘show business’

Nieto is currently pursuing a master’s degree in science, technology, engineering and public policy at University College London through distance learning.

In a Facebook post last month, Nieto acknowledged that he “became part of a system that turned politics into show business. Whether deliberately or not, I contributed to reducing important issues to a mere contest between political colors—Red, Green, Yellow and Pink.”

In 2021, Nieto was acquitted in a cyberlibel case filed by former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, receiving pro bono legal assistance from the law firm of first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos.

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In 2023, he was ordered to pay P350,000 in damages and legal fees after a Makati City court found him guilty of violating the Data Privacy Act for doxxing or revealing without permission private information about Jover Laurio, writer of the Pinoy Ako blog. /cb