Duterte appoints Piñol as MinDa chairperson

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol as chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).

Piñol will serve as MinDA chairperson, a Cabinet position, for six years, according to the appointment paper signed by the President on Monday.

In a Facebook post, Piñol said he was supposed to take his oath on Monday but he asked for a “short vacation which my tired body has been craving for.”

“My new task will still be mainly agriculture and the economic growth of Mindanao with special focus on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” he said.

“It will also include handling the country's membership in the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia- Malaysia-the Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area).”

Duterte named Dr. William Dar, a former Agriculture chief, as Piñol’s replacement at the DA.

“As announced by Senator Bong Go, my differences with the economic managers on very critical issues, especially the rice liberalization, have made my stay at the DA untenable,” Piñol said.

“I thank everybody who supported me and I offer my apologies to the farmers and fishermen who may not have been served well enough. Pasensya na po sa mga pagkukulang ko.”

Piñol also thanked the officials and workers of the DA for helping him “transform the department and shedding off its image of a corrupt government agency.”

“In this new assignment, I will work just as hard as when I was Secretary of Agriculture,” he said. —KBK, GMA News