Peter Laviña appointed NIA chief—Piñol

President Rodrigo Duterte and Peter Tiu Laviña. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed his former campaign spokesperson Peter Tiu Laviña as the new administrator of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol said on Tuesday.

“Laviña’s appointment as the new NIA head is a welcome relief for the Dept. of Agriculture especially since the agency, while officially under the Office of the President, is one of the most important agencies supporting Philippine agriculture,” Piñol wrote on Facebook.

“With Laviña at the helm of NIA, I expect a smoother coordination between the Department of Agriculture and the water agency of the government, especially in the area of the scheduling of the release of irrigation water for the rice farms which had been a problematic issue for so long,” he added.

Piñol said Christopher “Bong” Go, special assistant to the President, informed him of Laviña’s appointment on Monday in Malacañang.

Before his stint as campaign spokesman, Laviña served as special assistant to then Davao City Mayor Duterte and elected councilor of the city.

Laviña’s wife Evelyn was earlier appointed one of the undersecretaries of the agriculture department.

READ: Duterte taps top aide’s wife as agriculture undersecretary

Piñol said his choice of NIA administrator, Maguindanao engineer Czar Sulaik, will assume the post of deputy administrator for operations. Sulaik served as provincial irrigation officer of North Cotabato when Piñol was governor.

“A hesitant candidate for the top NIA post, he (Sulaik) agreed to settle for the position of Deputy Administrator for Operations after I informed him of President Duterte’s choice of Laviña as NIA administrator,” Piñol said. RAM/rga