By GENALYN KABILING
President Duterte has approved major changes in the National Food Authority (NFA), including removing Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. as chairman of the NFA Council and transferring the agency back to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The President has also created a new Palace committee to supervise and implement the rice importation program, which would now be carried out through government-to-government scheme.
The latest directives of the President were reached during the NFA Council meeting in Malacañang last Monday amid government efforts to boost the country’s rice supply.
“The NFA, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), and the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) will be made attached agencies of the Department of Agriculture (DA),” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.
“Because the NFA is now under the Department of Agriculture anew, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco will no longer be part of the NFA Council,” he said during the press conference in Boracay.
In returning the three agencies to the DA, Roque explained that Duterte did not want to be “saddled with too many agencies” under the Office of the President.
An executive order on the return of these agencies to the DA will be issued soon.
Asked about the replacement of Evasco in the NFA council, Roque said it was prudent to wait for the President’s EO.
Evasco immediately accepted the President’s decision and thanked him for the opportunity to chair the NFA council for the past one and a half year.
“I have full respect with the decision of the President given the encompassing nature and impact of the National Food Authority on the Filipino people and the farmers,” Evasco said in a statement read by Roque.
Evasco said he has put in place several policy guidelines to facilitate “more transparent, competitive, inclusive and accountable” system of procurement and distribution of NFA rice.
He also highlighted that he has never been investigated or charged for corruption and other anomaly in public service.
Evasco likewise expressed hopes that next NFA council chair to continue the reforms in the agency to prevent a repeat of the corruption and debt-ridden practices of the past.
“With the President’s decision to transfer the governance to the next council Chair, I believe that NFA can now move forward towards ensuring that corrupt, exclusive and debt-ridden practices during the past administrations will not reign in the next transactions to pass,” he said.
The NFA reorganization came amid the reported feud between Evasco and NFA administrator Jason Aquino over their differences in the mode of rice importation, buying price for palay, among others.
