Message to DA workers CORRUPTION IN AGRI DEPT. ENDS UNDER PRES. DUTERTE

(Message delivered by Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol during the first convocation with DA officials and employees at BSWM office July 5, 2016.)

Over the years and along the way, this Department and many of its agencies have been distracted by programs and projects which are not essential to their original mission.

The Department of Agriculture must go back to its basic mandate and that is to produce food for this nation.

Along this line, the focus of our funding support should be on programs that contribute directly to food production and poverty alleviation.

Reforms must be made within this agency.

Over the years, the DA’s image has been tainted with issues of corruption from the fertilizer scam to allegations that the importation of onion and garlic is controlled by a cartel.

I have seen for myself how a noble program like PL480 which is funded by the US government to improve the country’s dairy goat industry through the infusion of outstanding genetics has been marred by corruption.

I know of stories of how the Farm to Market Road program has been turned into sources of funds for some unscrupulous individuals.

I have heard of how regulatory offices under this Department have been agonizingly slow in acting on transactions brought before them.

Listen to this or read my lips: Corruption will not be tolerated in this Department. Not anymore.

I am directing Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Segfredo Serrano and Undersecretary for Administration and Finance Bernadette Romulo to initiate the establishment of a system where applications for permits could be submitted and the fees paid on-line.

The applicants will only come to this department when their permits are ready to be picked up or if their physical presence is not needed, these could be mailed to them.

Biddings for goods, items, supplies including the procurement of animals and goats for genetic infusion will be announced on-line.

I am directing the new head of the ICT office to open a new DA website which would be interactive and where stakeholders in agriculture could relay their concerns, problems and complaints directly to the Secretary of this Department.

Officials and employees of this Department who will be affected by reassignments are urged to abide by directives issued by the Secretary.

I would like to advise you not to waste your money in hiring lawyers to question the Secretary’s efforts to execute reforms in this Department because I have a battery of lawyers who will be consulted before I make any move to ensure that I will not commit an illegal act.

Before I end, let me just advise the head of the General Services Office that I do not like to work in a dirty environment.

I will give you one week to clean the frontage of this Department and make sure that no vehicles are parked along the pathways.

This directive on the cleanliness of our offices and surroundings is also addressed to the heads of the agencies and regional offices under this Department.

Remember the saying: Cleanliness is next to God-liness.

I also would like to remind everyone that You and I have a mission and we all undertake this task as one team.

We have to work together, harmoniously if I have to emphasize that.

The last thing that I would like to hear are disagreements or even feuds between officials and employees of this department.

Let me repeat my warning during the first transition meeting which I attended: I will not tolerate in-fighting within this department or within the offices of this department.

Settle your differences like matured individuals or else I will assign you both to offices so distant – maybe one in Tuguegarao, Cagayan Valley and the other in Bongao, Tawi-tawi – so that you will never see each other again until you retire or until you die.

My dear friends and fellow workers in this department and to the stakeholders in agriculture and fisheries in this country:

When President Rody Duterte named me as the Agriculture Secretary under his administration, I readily and happily accepted the position.

For so long, as a farmer and a local government executive I saw with my own eyes what needs to be done to ensure that there will be Available and Affordable Food for the people of this country.

I will never betray the trust of my President or fail the expectations of our people.

Thank you.