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[av_heading heading=’‘Unqualified’ DAR secretary got ‘no track record’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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Thursday, March 15, 2018
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MANILA – The Commission on Appointments suspended yesterday the confirmation hearing on John Rualo Castriciones as Agrarian Reform secretary after concerns were raised on his qualifications.
A party-list representative against Castriciones’ appointment cited the official’s “lack of qualifications, special training and track record” to head the Department of Agrarian Reform.
“That secretary should, starting Day 1, hit the ground running,” said Rep. Tom Villarin (Akbayan). “Without the necessary background, such appointee would be bereft of that qualification that should befit a secretary of DAR.”
Villarin claimed that Castriciones has not acted on the letters of farmer-beneficiaries inquiring on their certificates of landownership award (CLOA) that had no legal impediment since his first day in office.
President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Castriciones on Dec. 14 last year to replace Rafael Mariano, whose appointment the CA rejected.
Villarin further claimed that Castriciones lacked the “necessary character” of a Cabinet secretary.
He cited the libel case that Castriciones filed against a reporter when he was still an Interior department undersecretary, and the many issues he allegedly had with agency personnel.
Insisting that he was qualified, Castriciones said he has handled agrarian reform cases in his 26 years as a practicing lawyer.
“I belong to a family of farmers in Nueva Vizcaya and I know the sentiments of being a farmer,” he said. “I have had past law students who are now lawyers and judges who have consulted me on agrarian cases.”
But it does not take a farmer to understand most of the functions of a DAR secretary, Castriciones stressed.
“In fact, all the functions of a secretary would have to dwell on matters that are legal in nature, and that is probably the reason [that] cases have piled up,” he said.
Since the law requires an appointee to have adequate background and experience in land reform for at least five years, perhaps Castriciones’ “past experience in handling agrarian cases for both tenants and landlords could be considered as experience,” said Rep. Josephine Sato (Occidental Mindoro).
She asked Castriciones to submit to the CA the list of all agrarian cases he handled. “I believe that if we see these cases, the sentiments or the questions on his experience on land reform could be answered,” she said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson then asked that the list should “include the disposition and the resolutions of the cases.”
Sen. Grace Poe, chairwoman of the CA’s Committee on Agrarian Reform, said the proposal “will put to rest any issues regarding qualification.”
“I will try my best (to comply) considering that these cases happened a long time ago,” Castriciones said. (PNA)
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