Local execs: Piñol appointment to bring DA closer to Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Local executives in Central Mindanao gave Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the presumed winner of the presidential elections, the proverbial “two thumbs up” for picking former North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol to become his agriculture secretary.

Leading broadcast outfits in Southern Mindanao, among them Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation, which has five Catholic stations scattered in the region, have been announcing Duterte’s decision since Monday.

“This is, for us, something so positive. This will mean very close linkages between our farmers and the department which is to be managed soon by someone from a province which is very near to us,” reelected Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said in an email Thursday. 

Physician Danda Juanday, appointed administrator of Cotabato City, said it would be easier for local officials to transact with the department with Piñol at its helm.

“He is just a neighbor, so to speak. To follow up projects in the central office of the department is very physically taxing and expensive,” said Juanday, who is known as the alter ego of the reelected Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani, Jr.

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Piñol, himself a farmer and breeder of homegrown bloodlines of large chickens, served as chairman of the Liguasan Delta Development Task Force in 1995 while mayor of M'lang town in North Cotabato.

He was provincial governor of North Cotabato from 1998 to 2007 and vice governor for three years after three terms as chief executive of the province.

A former print journalist, Piñol studied Development Communications at the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan town in North Cotabato, where he also earned a master’s degree on rural economic development.

“It would be an honor to serve the Filipinos as Agriculture secretary under a Duterte administration,” Piñol told select reporters Thursday via Facebook private message.

Piñol said he would focus on vital programs needed to improve the productivity of farmers and help market local farm products such as processed rubber and palm oil abroad.

“Our farmers are complaining of very low prices in both raw and processed rubber despite the very high demand for it in the Philippines and abroad,” he said.

Duterte announced in Davao City early this week his having chosen Piñol as his agriculture secretary.