Legal work Yasay became a member of the Bar of the state of New York and of the United States Supreme Court. While in New York, he was managing director of the Maceda Philippine News from 1983 to 1987 and senior partner at two law firms—Maceda, Yasay & Tolentino, Esqs., and Yasay & De Castro, Esqs.—from 1979 to 1990. In the Philippines, he was commissioner of San Jose, Yasay & Santos Law Offices from 1987 to 1993. On February 15, 2010, Yasay apologized to Estrada for "hurting and offending him" but clarified that this was not a retraction of his testimony on the deposed president's "abuse of authority and corruption." Among his campaign platform points, Yasay conveyed that the practice of using big-name endorsers should be stopped because it makes the elections a matter of money and popularity. He also said that the voters will only base their votes via the endorsers of the candidate, and that the biggest setback in the fight against corruption was the quick pardon of
Joseph Estrada. Yasay lost to
Makati City Mayor
Jejomar Binay in the
vice-presidential elections.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs during their bilateral meeting on July 27, 2016 He accepted the offer of
President Rodrigo Duterte to join his Cabinet on May 18, 2016. During his tenure he represented the Duterte administration's policy of an "independent foreign policy" distancing the Philippines from the United States. According to Yasay, the United States had used a "
carrot and stick" foreign policy in regard to the Philippines since for their own interest to the detriment of the latter. Yasay was meant by Duterte to serve the post until mid-2017, when Duterte planned to appoint his running mate, Senator
Alan Peter Cayetano, as his successor. On March 8, 2017, however, Yasay's appointment was rejected by a unanimous vote of 15–0 by the
Commission on Appointments due to questions about his
Philippine citizenship status after a period of
United States citizenship. ==Board memberships and philanthropy==