ZAMBOANGA CITY—Incoming Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol is not only reshuffling officials of the department, he will do a “complete clean up.”
“Tell me, how am I going to retain these people in an agency where performance is negative 0.4 percent?” Piñol asked in an interview with the Inquirer.
But the former North Cotabato governor refused to give names or numbers. He, however, said these officials will be evaluated according to how they fared in the past six years.
“I am sorry. Maybe they are good, but the performance shows otherwise,” he said.
“And I am going to remove all political appointees. I am tired of politicians running the agriculture department. I am an ex-politician, but I don’t need another politician to run the department,” Piñol said.
Immediately after President-elect Rodrigo Duterte named him as the incoming agriculture secretary, Piñol went into a “Byaheng Bukid,” visiting farms all over the country.
“I want to be prepared when I take over the department. I want to feel and see for myself the situation on the ground,” he said. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao