Bersamin: Marcos ‘seriously considering’ appointing new agri chief
MANILA, Philippines — Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said Wednesday that President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is “seriously considering” appointing someone to head the Department of Agriculture, whose portfolio the chief executive currently handles.
“The president is seriously considering several people to appoint on a permanent basis or regular basis who will represent or minister the DA portfolio. But he has not yet signified to us that he is ready to announce his decision,” Bersamin told a Commission on Appointments panel that was screening his appointment.
Bersamin also said that Marcos is currently addressing issues on food production and security together with his entire Cabinet and that the day-to-day operations of the DA are being overseen by an undersecretary.
The executive secretary, whose appointment passed the CA panel and is expected to be approved in plenary later Wednesday, was responding to a question by Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (Sagip party-list) who raised concerns that Marcos may be too busy to deal with national issues alongside agriculture woes.
“Some sectors, Mr. ES, are urging the president because of the need for food production and food security, that he must already appoint a permanent secretary for the Department of Agriculture so the president can focus on more important other issues as leader of this country,” Marcoleta said.
Back in August, Sen. Risa Hontiveros prodded Marcos to appoint a permanent agriculture chief, saying that his performance of the tasks of DA head only leads to “confusion and dysfunctionality in the bureaucracy.”
Hontiveros said it is “very difficult” for Marcos to head numerous government agencies and the armed forces alongside the DA.
Slow pace of appointments
Aside from the DA, the Department of Health, which is primarily in charge of running the government’s response to the pandemic, is also still running headless with just an officer-in-charge at the helm.
Officers-in-charge have only until the end of the year to serve as heads of their respective departments, agencies and bureaus.
“Is there a timeline for filling all these vacancies? Because we are all getting impatient,” Sen. Imee Marcos asked Bersamin as she raised the slow rollout of appointments to key government agencies, including the DOH.
Bersamin said they have a self-imposed deadline of until December 31 to consider all coterminous appointments, but admitted that he and his senior deputy executive secretary encountered problems mainly due to a lack of transition from former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez who resigned in September.
“We did a lot of digging into these documents until we found them because we were always readily blamed by the respective Cabinet secretaries about these slow pace of appointments. But that is not intentional,” Bersamin said.
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