Change coming to DA, Pagcor, DPWH

PIÑOL                                                                                                     DOMINGO                                                                            VILLAR

DAVAO CITY—Presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has announced the forthcoming appointments of former North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol as his agriculture secretary and Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar as public works secretary.

Veteran negotiator Jesus Dureza was named peace adviser, 1BAP Rep. Silvestre Bello III was designated chief negotiator in upcoming talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and former immigration chief Andrea Domingo was appointed head of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Duterte made the announcements shortly after midnight following separate meetings with the prospective members of his official family. Some of the Cabinet members were announced earlier Monday in Duterte’s first news conference following the May 9 elections.

Most of the members of the new Cabinet come from Mindanao and are either classmates or close associates during Duterte’s two-decade tenure as mayor of Davao City.

Piñol, 62, held the governorship of North Cotabato for nine years until 2007 when he moved down as vice governor for three years. In 2010, he lost the race for the governorship of North Cotabato.

“Deep inside me, I told myself, ‘Wow, now I will be able to do what I had long wanted our agriculture officials to do,’ which is to produce more food  for the Filipinos and improve the lives of our farmers,” Piñol told reporters.

Bello served in the Cabinet of the late Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

From July 1991 to June 1992, Bello was justice secretary, a position he also held from February 1998 to June 1998.

Under the Arroyo administration, Bello served as chair of the Philippine peace panel negotiating with the Communist Party of the Philippines from 2001 to 2004. He was named presidential adviser for new government centers in 2007 and was appointed  Cabinet secretary in 2008.

Domingo served as commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and general manager of the Philippine Reclamation Authority during the Arroyo administration. She was representative of the third district of Pampanga from 1992 to 1995.

Peacemaker

Dureza occupied various posts during the Arroyo administration. He was the presidential adviser on the peace process and Mindanao Economic Development Council chair from 2001 to 2006, as well as chair of the government peace negotiating panel for talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from February 2001 to May 2003.

Dureza was congressman representing the first district of Davao City from 1987 to 1989, and from 1992 to 1995.

Las Piñas representative Villar, inherited the political mantle of his parents, real estate magnate and former Sen. Manny Villar and Sen. Cynthia Villar. He is serving his second term as representative of the lone district of Las Piñas and was reelected for a third term during this month’s elections.

BELLO                                                                                                                               DUREZA

Prior to joining politics, Mark was the president of Crown Asia, a subsidiary of Villar-led Vista Land & Lifescapes.

Untainted

Sen. Cynthia Villar said she and her husband did not expect Duterte to appoint their son the  secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

“(Duterte) wanted someone honest and not tainted with corruption,” Senator Villar said, when asked why Duterte chose her son.

Villar said she, her husband and Mark met with Duterte in Davao City the other day because Villars’ Nacionalista Party (NP) had coalesced with Duterte’s PDP-Laban party. It was there that the presumptive President-elect talked to her son in joining his Cabinet.

In a phone patch interview with Senate reporters, Villar said it wasn’t decided yet who would replace Mark as Las Piñas representative.

She said this could mean the holding of a special election or a caretaker will be appointed by the House to take over her son’s seat.

Asked whether the Villar’s vast real estate business will be an issue against her son’s taking over of DPWH, she disagreed. “DPWH is for the people. Roads are for the people,” the senator said.

Coalition

Villar said the coalition between the NP and PDP-Laban was just formed this week.

Asked why the NP teamed up with PDP-Laban in a coalition, Villar said she and her husband were good friends with the party founder, former Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., as well as his son Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, the current PDP-Laban president.

Likewise, she and her husband were friends with Duterte for about 20 years now. When her husband was House Speaker from 1998 to 2000, Duterte was Davao City representative then.

“We are close and comfortable with them,” Villar said. With reports from Germelina Lacorte and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao; and Christine O. Avendaño in Manila