DAR chief says he’ll step down if ordered by Aquino

Agrarian Reform Secretary Gil de los Reyes. GOV.PH PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Agrarian Reform Secretary Gil de los Reyes, who is hounded by calls to resign over the slow distribution of disputed lands, said Wednesday he would step down from his post if President Benigno Aquino III tells him to do so.

De los Reyes, in an interview with the INQUIRER, declined to say if he would hand over a letter of resignation to the President this week following the creation of a task force to oversee the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a landmark piece of legislation created by the late former President Corazon Aquino, Mr. Aquino’s mother.

But following a Mass held at the DAR headquarters Wednesday with farmers who urged him to stay at the department, de los Reyes revealed that keeping his post depends on the President.

He noted that it is up to the President to “accept or not” his stay at the DAR. He added that he serves at the pleasure of the President, whom he did not meet until he was appointed to the post in 2010.

When asked to elaborate on this, de los Reyes declined to say that he will hand over a resignation letter to the President when they meet this week to discuss the status of agrarian reform in the country. “I will give him my report,” he said.