Eliseo Rio Jr.

From September 1968 to April 1969, Rio held various positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines Research and Development Center. In October 1969, he was assigned with Communication Company, 4th Infantry Division, in Mindanao. He was an instructor at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio from 1971 to 1974. From 1975 to 1982, he was part of then-President Ferdinand Marcos' classified project called Project Santa Barbara as head of its Electronics Division. The project's aim was primarily to develop different types of missiles with the purpose of guarding and defending the country.[4] After that, he was assigned assistant General Manager of Gasifier and Equipment Manufacturing Corporation (GEMCOR), a company under the Ministry of Public Works and Highways. He was again reassigned as head of the AFP Research and Development Center Communication-Electronics R&D Group from February 1985 to May 1988. He was the group commander of Military Intelligence Group 21 and Electronics Technical Intelligence Group of the Intelligence Service, Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) from 1988 to 1992. 1992 to 1995 saw Rio in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as the Philippine Embassy's Defense and Armed Forces Attaché. He was designated Assistant Chief of Staff for Communication, Electronics and Information System of the Philippine Army from 1995 to 1998. He was assigned as Commandant of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Command and General Staff College from February 1998 to June 1999. He was promoted to Brig. General and appointed as Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Communication, Electronics and Information Systems Service (AFPCEISS), from July 1999 to March 2000. From April to October 2000, he was designated Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Electronics and Information Systems, Armed Forces of the Philippines (J11). He retired from the Armed Forces on October 27, 2000.[1]

Rio as NTC Commissioner, 2001

Rio was appointed by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission on February 26, 2001 succeeding acting-Commissioner Agustin Bengzon. One of his first official acts as NTC Commissioner was to extend the Provisional Authority (PA) of Globe and Smart, and other entities from one to three years.[1][5] During his term, NTC's collection breached the billion pesos mark, almost doubling the commission's average yearly collections since its establishment. In 2002, he enacted NTC Memorandum Circular 08-07-2002: "Rules And Regulations Authorizing Entities Other Than Public Telecommunications Entities To Install And Operate Public Calling Stations/Offices And Telecenters" which paved the way to the proliferation of call centers and BPOs in the country. He finished his term on October 8, 2002 and was succeeded by Armi Jane Borje.

Rio was appointed as Undersecretary for Special Concerns of the Department of Information and Communications Technology and was sworn in on September 13, 2016.[6] As Undersecretary for Special Concerns, he was in charge of the formulation of policies, planning, and programming of Cybersecurity and Emergency Communications and the implementation of strategic programs and projects, and regional operations. He also held various supervisory roles in agencies like the Cybercrime Investigation Coordination Center, the National Privacy Commission, and the COMELEC Advisory Council (CAC), as well as overseeing duties regarding the participation of the DICT in the activities of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. On October 10, 2017, following the resignation of Rodolfo Salalima as DICT Secretary, he was appointed officer-in-charge of the department upon the instructions of President Duterte.[7] Rio was then elevated to acting Secretary of the department on May 8, 2018.[2] He took his oath of office at the Sandiganbayan on May 11.[8] Plans and programs of the DICT under his leadership were the implementation of policies to increase internet speed while keeping costs low, improvement of e-governance to reduce queues and lines at government offices, programs such as the Technology for Education, Employment, Entrepreneurs, and Economic Development (Tech4ED) and the development of a high-speed information highway involving Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and Facebook.[9]

His term as officer-in-charge of the department ended after former-Senator Gringo Honasan took his oath of office as DICT Secretary on July 1, 2019.[10]

Rio Jr. was an independent member of the board of Bayan Telecommunications from November 2004 to January 2006. From February 2006 to January 2007, he was the chairman of the board of NextMobile, formerly Nextel Philippines. From 2007, he was a consultant to Globe and Teodoro N. Romasanta Inc. (TNRI). He was also president of Trufone from March 2014. In August 2016, Rio tendered his resignation as member of the Board of Directors of Now Corporation citing "possible conflict of interest" as reason for resignation.[11]