He served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was Bangon Pilipinas Party's vice-presidential candidate in the 2010 Philippine elections, running alongside Eddie Villanueva.

[6] 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.

[2] 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.

His wife clarified, however, that his pneumonia was a complication from cancer recurrence rather than COVID-19, the latter disease being the cause of a pandemic affecting the world at the time of Yasay's death.