President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said he will not sack Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol and officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) amid calls for their ouster because of the rice crisis.
The president, who left for a visit to Israel and Jordan yesterday, said firing Pinol and NFA Administrator Jason Aquino is not necessary. “Maybe the laws are weak or unenforceable. All we have to do is to improve on those laws, not necessarily fire people,” Duterte said.
“I do not see any serious offence there. We have not really lost anything except that there is an aberration in the market,” he added.
Some groups have blamed Pinol and NFA officials for the rice shortage that hit some areas in Mindanao and the rising prices of the main staple.
Pinol thanked the president “for his continued trust and confidence.”
“I promise to do my best to live up to his and the Filipino people’s expectations,’ the DA chief said.
Last week, House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez and representatives Alfredo Garbin of Ako Bicol party-list and Jose Atienza of Buhay party-list sought the resignation of Pinol and Aquino after the DA chief admitted that the country’s rice inventory stood at 1,320,927 metric tonnes (MT) or good for only 40 days, less than half of the required 90-day national buffer stock.
Atienza said the DA has not done anything to ease the rice shortage, while the NFA and the policy-making NFA Council have traded blame over the delayed delivery of rice imports.
But Pinol dismissed calls for his resignation, saying he will only step down if the president fires him.
Yesterday, Duterte said he will not allow Filipinos to go hungry and warned rice hoarders not to test his patience.
“I’m warning the traders, do not force me to resort to emergency measure,” he said in a news conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
“If I see any hoarding, any wrongdoing, I will not hesitate to exercise the powers of the president and I will ask the military and the police to raid your warehouses,” the President said. “I can do that, and I said if you force me, I will,” he added.
ANAC-IP party-list Rep. Jose Panganiban Jr agreed with the president’s decision to keep Pinol, saying he is doing well.
“They do not need to resign. Secretary Pinol is okay at his job. With Aquino, maybe a better co-ordination between the NFA administration and the NFA Council needs to be done,” he said.
“Sec Pinol has been saying that we have a bumper crop of at least 95%, and we are rice self sufficient at 19.2mn metric tonnes harvested. This is good news. With administrator Aquino, I think he is trying his best to function to ease the gap between commercial rice and cheaper rice,” Panganiban said.