Duterte eyeing ex-soldier to replace Piñol at DA

President Rodrigo Duterte is eyeing a former military official to replace Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol who is set to be transferred to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).

Duterte said Wednesday that he was still searching for Piñol’s replacement.

“I’m scouting around. Maybe again a military man kasi madali mag-utos ng trabaho and they do it without a question,” the President said in an interview over Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s television program.

“When I tell you do this and do that do not question me because I will never give you an order to do something that is illegal.”

Duterte earlier shrugged off criticisms that he is militarizing his Cabinet, saying that he preferred former uniformed personnel because they obeyed orders without debating them.

At present, the former military officials in the Cabinet include Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairperson Eduardo del Rosario and Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista.

Duterte had also appointed former military and police officials to other posts in the bureaucracy.

The President said he wanted Piñol to be his point man in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as there is “nobody on my side talking to the BARMM to make necessary arrangements for this entity to grow and their needs.”

“Nobody is talking to the BARMM. What else do you want? What else do you need? What happens to this office? Would it be dissolved or you want another entity to make it work? Wala eh so I have to have my man there. Piñol is from Cotabato,” he said.

Duterte met with officials of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) last week to discuss with them his plan to transfer Piñol to MinDA.

The President said the BTA officials led by interim chief minister Murad Ebrahim agreed to his decision.

Murad had said Piñol is unpopular among the Bangsamoro people due to the latter's opposition to the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2008 since its provisions vested the proposed Bangsamoro entity the status of a sub-state which is not recognized by the present charter.  

The BTA leader however said it was the President's prerogative who he will appoint to the MinDA portfolio. —NB, GMA News