OUTGOING Senate President Vicente Sotto III yesterday described as an “excellent decision” the decision of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (BBM) to temporarily take over the Department of Agriculture.
“I’m expecting the incoming president to scrutinize everything. He knows what’s going on… I know for a fact that he already has a list of those involved in the smuggling (of agricultural products),” Sotto said in an interview with Senate media.
Sotto earlier said he had the chance to talk with Marcos and shared with him the findings and recommendations of the Committee of the Whole on the smuggling of agricultural products.
He said Marcos was “bothered” over the corruption that has been plaguing the Department of Agriculture but the incoming president did not discuss his plans to cleanse the agency of misfits who have been conspiring with rogue officials from the Bureau of Customs.
“When we were talking about it (corruption in DA), he was shaking his head, I know, I sensed, and the way he was shaking his head, he was disgusted with what he was hearing,” he said.
Senator-elect Francis Escudero said Marcos Jr, taking the lead in the department “can cut a lot of red tape and it automatically puts at the disposal of the department and the agricultural sector, all the resources of the government behind it.”
Senator-elect Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada said: “I think it’s a good decision, and a very admirable one if I may say. It shows how decisive and very hands on our President-elect is.
It may not be the end-all and be-all solution to all the problems besetting the agricultural sector including the food crisis but for sure, decision-making will be really fast and solutions can be undertaken and implemented right away.”
Senator-elect JV Ejercito said, “Goes to show he is serious in addressing the food crisis issue by taking on the portfolio of DA himself,” Ejercito said.
