No displacement of employees at DA — Lorenzo

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Outgoing Agriculture Secretary Luis "Cito" Lorenzo clarified yesterday that not a single employee from the Central Office of the Agriculture Department would be displaced as the secretary’s office transfers to Davao City.

Lorenzo said it is only the office of the secretary that would be relocated and not the whole government agency.

Moreover, Lorenzo said the government has no adequate funds for hauling the whole department to the south as the President ordered earlier this year.

President Arroyo earlier tapped the Cabatangan Complex here, which is formerly used as a satellite camp by the renegades of jailed Muslim leader Nur Misuari, but has decided on Davao City instead.

"People usually associate an agency with a building. I associate an agency, where the interface between the secretary and the people of the department takes place, with the farmers and the fisherfolks in the Department of Agriculture," Lorenzo said.

He also explained that the transfer of DA regional office in Western Mindanao from this city to Pagadian "does not make practical sense."

The city government has been legally blocking the plan of transferring the regional agriculture office to Pagadian citing the lack of funding from the national coffers to finance the relocation, which is also expected to dislocate the employees who are residents of this city.