‘By giving Sebastian such vast powers, Rodriguez made the resigned undersecretary equally powerful if not more powerful than the DA secretary. ’
RESIGNED Dr. Leocadio Sebastian, the powerful Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for operations and chief of staff of the DA secretary who is no other than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was one very lucky Palace appointee for receiving all the delegated power and authority as if he was the secretary of agriculture himself.
It was hard to squeeze one’s political memory to find a similar situation in the past where a Cabinet member was blessed with so much delegated power. Probably we will have to go back to the martial law era when then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos was appointed Minister of Human Settlements. But at least Imelda was a Cabinet secretary, unlike Sebastian now who is an undersecretary.
The culprit in this flurry of delegated authority is Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez’s Memorandum titled “Designation as Undersecretary for Operations of the Department of Agriculture, dated July 15, 2022.” This document gave Sebastian the authority to sign contracts for the DA and act as head of the agency’s procuring entity.
He was also given the power to sit as ex-officio chairman or member of committees, councils, boards and bodies where Marcos as DA chief is a member, or designate other DA officials to these bodies. The memo even gave Sebastian the power to investigate and impose disciplinary actions over all employees and officers under the Office of the Secretary.
On top of these, Sebastian was authorized by Rodriguez to act “as the designated Head of the Procuring Entity, and reconstitute the Bids and Awards Committee,” as well as appoint or reassign DA employees, except those who should be appointed by the President.
The Executive Secretary also designated Sebastian as the DA undersecretary for operations “effective immediately, until a replacement is appointed or until otherwise directed” by the Executive Secretary’s office, adding that all of Sebastian’s actions “shall be considered valid, unless subsequently disapproved or reprobated by the President.”
A cabal of social media bloggers was quick to defend the Executive Secretary saying that particular memo did not give Sebastian the authority to sign on behalf of the President as Provision H of the DA General Memorandum Order No. 3 (2016) as amended by General Memorandum Order No. 1 (2018) clearly gives that authority solely to the Secretary.
However, Rodriguez’ memorandum attempts to supersede that as it authorizes Sebastian to “sign contracts, memoranda of agreement, administrative issuances, instruments and administrative and financial documents… including those enumerated in DA General Memorandum Order (GMO) No. 3 (s. 2016) as amended by DA GMO No. 1 (s. 2018).” The operative word is “including” and not “except those.”
By giving Sebastian such vast powers, Rodriguez made the resigned undersecretary equally powerful if not more powerful than the DA secretary. This situation carries with it inherent perils that manifested soon enough when Sebastian and other Sugar Regulatory Administration officials recently approved the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar reportedly without the knowledge of the President.
Executive Secretary Rodriguez cannot escape responsibility for this mess created by Sebastian, who admitted his error, apologized and resigned. Any top-level investigation into this irregularity must include the ES, or it would just be a glossing over or sweeping under the rug of an embarrassing scandal.
Press Secretary Trixie Angeles also came overboard when she cleared the name of her boss, dutifully lawyering for Rodriguez as she absolved him of responsibility for the sugar mess while the Palace investigation was still ongoing.
Sebastian, for sure, has realized the perils of delegated power as he returns to the private sector or opt for retirement. Let present and future officials learn from this sorry episode.