MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte removed Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco from the National Food Authority (NFA) Council.
“Cabinet Secretary Evasco will no longer be part of the NFA Council,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. announced on Tuesday during a news conference in Boracay Island.
Evasco said he fully respects the decision of Duterte and thanked the President for the “opportunity” to chair the NFA Council.
In a statement read by Roque, Evasco admitted that being part of the reform agenda in the NFA and the government has been a “challenge.”
But this did not stop him from ensuring the successful implementation of reforms, said Evasco.
“All these have given me lessons, learnings and insights I will treasure and nurture as we continue to move toward better, cleaner and effective government service for the people,” he said.
Evasco called on the new NFA Council leader “to take advantage of what we have started” and “continue the systems transformation.”
In addition, Roque said the NFA, together with the Philippine Coconut Authority and the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority, will be reverted to the Department of Agriculture.
Earlier President Rodrigo Duterte sought the abolition of the NFA Council to fast-track rice importation and address local supply problems.
But several lawmakers were against it, saying doing so would remove safeguards to corruption and abuse in the NFA.
The NFA Council was created under Presidential Decree 4 to serve as a watchdog against corruption in rice.
Agencies composing the NFA Council were the National Economic and Development Authority, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Finance, and Department of Trade and Industry, among others.
The NFA Council should “guard against arbitrary or self-serving acts of the executive branch,” said Sen. Francis Pangilinan, former chief of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization./PN
