MANILA – After drawing flak for his controversial meeting with the fishermen whose boat was rammed and abandoned by a Chinese vessel at Reed Bank, Emmanuel Piñol resigned as secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
Former presidential top aide and senator-elect Bong Go on Thursday said Piñol asked President Rodrigo Duterte to remove him as Agriculture secretary and transfer elsewhere.
“With the best interest of the Department of Agriculture and its stakeholders in mind, may I request that I be relieved from my present position as secretary of Agriculture and reassigned to whoever agency you believe I would be effective,” Piñol said.
Duterte in Malacanang on Thursday said he plans to reassign Piñol to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
“I cannot see anybody on the horizon except Piñol who was born in Mindanao and grew up there. He’s a farmer and then a governor,”Duterte said.
“Sabi ko pumunta ka na lang doon, tulungan mo na lang ako. Get them started, hurry them up so they will have the very first organized government they have long wished for,” he added.
Duterte said he needs someone to help him with the newly created Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
However, Duterte added he will meet first with Bangsamoro region interim chief minister Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim before he accepts Piñol’s courtesy resignation and move him to MinDA.
Piñol drew flak after his meeting in Occidental Mindoro last week with the fishermen, whom earlier claimed they were abandoned, and then changed their tune and said they were no longer sure about what happened./PN
