Vow of transparency!
President Rody Duterte has directed that there would only be one official in his government who will be responsible and accountable in the utilization of the huge Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund – the Secretary of Agriculture.
During the Cabinet Meeting last month, President Duterte turned down my request that the other agencies of government involved in the implementation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Program which will have an initial funding of P10-B should also be made accountable.
These agencies are the Philippine Center for Mechanization (PhilMech), the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), the Technical Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and two government banks, Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines.
“Ikaw na lang. You will be solely responsible for the proper utilization of the money,” he told me during the Cabinet meeting.
There will be an initial P10-billion allocation for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) for 2019 and, depending on the volume of rice imported in the remaining five years, the amount could go as much as P26-B every year.
As Chairman of the Project Steering Committee of the RCEF, with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary General Sec. Ernesto Pernia as co-chair, I will have to make sure that all funds will be used for the purpose provided for by the Rice Tariffication Law.
This means that if there will be any case of misuse or malversation of the funds, I will be the only official who will be charged and who would go to jail if found guilty.
For 2019, PhilMech will get P5-B for Mechanization, PhilRice P3-B for the development of high yielding Inbred Seeds, LBP and DBP will get P500-M each for Credit while TESDA will get P700 for skills training.
The remaining P300-M will be divided equally among PhilMech, PhilRice and ATI for training and farmers education.
The President, in spite of my request that all heads of agencies be made equally accountable, decided that only one official should be answerable to him and the people – that official is no other than the Secretary of Agriculture.
This is a tough and heavy burden on my part but I take this as a sign of trust by the President on me and I accept the challenge.
In view of this, I would like to make this commitment to the President and the Filipino people, especially the Rice Farmers: there will be utmost transparency in the utilization of the P10-B fund.
I will make sure that every centavo of this fund will be counted and fully accounted.
With this commitment is a vow that I will never allow the implementation of any project that will not benefit the Filipino rice farmers.
#CommitmentToTransparency!
#EveryCentavoWillBeCounted!
#PresidentialChallengeAccepted!
(Article taken from the Official Facebook Page of DA Secretary Manny Piñol)
