Agri chief forms group to review DA's regulatory policies

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has created a technical working group (TWG) that will conduct a comprehensive review of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) regulatory policies.

In a statement on Thursday, the DA said Tiu Laurel designated Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and Regulations Asis Perez and Undersecretary and chief of staff Alvin John Balagbag as co-chairmen of the TWG.

The TWG would review the DA’s regulations, pursuant to the Special Order No. 753 issued by Tiu Laurel on May 24, 2024. 

The Agriculture chief said the TWG will also look into the results of the comprehensive review undertaken by the DA’s regulatory agencies and provide comments and inputs as well as recommend changes such as “the repeal and amendment of conflicting and obsolete regulations, to rationalize the regulatory policies being implemented by the Department.”

“I created this technical working group to harmonize regulations of various agencies of the DA to promote efficiency, trim red tape, and plug loopholes and clarify ambiguities that could be exploited and abused by unscrupulous individuals,” said Tiu Laurel. 

“We expect this review process to eventually foster the faster delivery of services to our stakeholders, easy the conduct of business with the DA as well as facilitate the entry of more investments in agriculture,” added the DA chief.

The DA said draft regulations that will repeal or amend existing rules will be endorsed by the TWG to the agency’s Regulatory Clearinghouse System for further review.

For his part, Perez said the TWG’s review process is expected to take around one year to complete.

“Our mandate is to make the DA not just a fair and efficient regulator but, more importantly, an enabler to promote the growth of agriculture,” said Perez.

“There will be priority regulations to review, those that have far-reaching impacts on the lives and livelihoods of our stakeholders across the agriculture value chain,” he added.

—VAL, GMA Integrated News