DA chief vows to focus on food production

THERE will be no witch hunt, no running after officials from the past administration at the Department of Agriculture, which will focus on its mandate of producing food for the country’s needs, according to Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol.

Piñol said this to DA employees last Friday, apparently to assuage ranking officials who would not keep their jobs.

The new DA chief brought with him a large number of trusted people to fill in the top posts at the department, mostly from Mindanao.

As of last week, only Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and Siegfredo Serrano—both undersecretaries—were retained among senior DA officials.

Puyat was named officer in charge of administration, finance and operations while Serrano maintains his office as head of policy and planning.

“I have friends here who are hoping that they will be retained, but I will have to ask for your understanding,” Piñol said.

“We have to bring in a team that the President trusts,” he added. “Please don’t take it personally. I know you did your job well, but there’s got to be change.”

Piñol said that, whatever happens, the employees should listen to the message of the President, which was that corruption would not be allowed.

“I’m not saying there is corruption (at the DA), but be warned that this President is very particular about this issue,” he said.

The former governor of Cotabato said that corruption came after drugs and crime as Duterte’s pet peeves.

Piñol said that while the news carried reports of officials being implicated or charged, he assured outgoing officials that “to persecute or prosecute anybody is not my job.”

“Now, if there is an ongoing case, then face it, but it’s not my job to dig up documents, hunt for sins and persecute you,” he said.

“Not that I’m reneging on my commitment for a corruption-free government, but I believe I should not be wasting my time running after people belonging to the previous administration,” he added.

Piñol had introduced a new assistant secretary for finance, lawyer Francisco Villano Jr.

Until last Friday, this post was held by Ophelia Agawin, who was implicated for allegedly being instrumental in anomalies involving the disbursement of the Priority Development Assistance Fund from lawmakers through the DA’s projects and entities under its supervision.

Agawin supposedly had been the point person of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles in the so-called PDAF scam that involved billions of pesos.

Last week, former DA director for administrative services Rudy Santos asked  Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to investigate Agawin and former Undersecretary Antonio Fleta for alleged procurement anomalies in 2011 and 2012.

“To my friends whom I could not accommodate, thank you for your services,” Piñol said.

“I know you’ve done well, but this is the reality—with a new president, new officials come in,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t like you, but that is the marching order.”