Ex-Air Force chief Kintanar named as PCA administrator

Former Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Galileo Gerard Kintanar (Photo courtesy of the Western Command)

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte appointed on Friday newly-retired Philippine Air Force (PAF) chief Lt. Gen. Galileo Gerard Kintanar Jr. as the new administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

“I do not know [personally] General Kintanar, but I choose him to the chairman of that board,” the President said in a speech during the change of command of at Villamor Air Base, PAF headquarters, in Pasay City.

Christopher “Bong” Go, former special assistant to the president, clarified that the post given to Kintanar was as administrator — not chairman, as Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol is the current PCA chairman.

The President said he would want someone he could trust to head the PCA.

“I don’t know him,” he said, referring to Kintanar. “I know that he is the general, chose to retire early, and that is really no cause to worry, just a few months. But I said I need people. And I am eyeing you.”

The President had earlier asked board members of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), which he said was “plagued with corruption,” to file their courtesy resignations.

He said he wanted a “clean” person to head the PCA, saying that the agency had billions of money.

“We might as well reserve that money for the future generation of farmers,” he said.

“So when the time comes, and if I can get the mechanisms of how the money will be distributed to the beneficiaries, and if I look for somebody na talagang makita ko na ang pera ng Pilipino hindi mawawala, it should be the retired General Kintanar,” he added.

The President said Kinatanar could choose the people he would want to serve at PCA.

“So I believe that [there are] courtesy resignations there and maybe I’ll just ask him to help me, he can choose the people he wants to serve dun sa [Philippine] Coconut Authority,” he said.

“All I need, all I require, all I desire, all that I dream of is that people joining me in government, is he must be utterly honest and second, that he is competent,” he added. /atm