President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. said he is staying as Agriculture secretary.
“The problems in agriculture are very deeply embedded. This happened so many years before so resolving it quickly by bringing back the previous good system [in the department] will not be easy. That is why I am still needed there,” Marcos told reporters in an ambush interview last Thursday.
His decision on the matter, he said, is backed by employees and other senior officials of the DA.
The President noted this was also the same reason why he has yet to assign an official Secretary of Health.
Currently, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire serves as the Officer-in-Charge of the Department of Health (DOH).
He said he will only consider handing over the leadership of the DA and DOH to permanent secretaries once the necessary structural changes in the said agencies are institutionalized.
“That is what I am trying to do. So that every day functions are fulfilled every day, without fuss, without bother, without fixers, without paying [any bribe]. That is what I am trying to do,” Marcos said.
