While it is still days before President-elect Rody Duterte will be sworn into office by months’ end as the country’s new president, lots of changes in the bureaucracy are now taking shape to stamp out pervasive corruption in government.
Incoming Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said Duterte wants an assurance that food should always be available and affordable for every Filipino and to stop corruption in the DA. Piñol, in one of his many dialogues with farmers in Mindanao, assured the country’s farm workers that they will now get government support to help them improve their rice production.
Among other issues that Piñol should look into are possible assistance to farmers regarding their expenses on their farm inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides as well as the need to modernize rice milling technology.
With regards to the “frequent” importation of rice, Piñol disclosed that Duterte directed him to stop the practice of importing rice by the private sector and to stop rice smuggling at all cost.
The public is fully aware about the rampant corruption within the DA regarding rice imported from Vietnam and Thailand.
Piñol was told by his informants from the DA that agriculture officials were getting a $20 rebate for every metric ton of rice imported from Vietnam and Thailand. Now I know why DA officials appointed by President Benigno Aquino were hesitant to aid farmers improve their rice production because of the $20 rebate they get.
Piñol said rice smuggling is being done by corrupt officials from the National Food Authority (NFA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC). Rice is being smuggled into the country through the backdoor, most of the time via Tawi-Tawi or Zamboanga.
The Philippines regularly imports more than a million ton of rice every year to meet the demands of its growing population. Just imagin the huge amount of money corrupt DA officials are getting every time they import rice from either Vietnam or Thailand. You do the math and multiply $20 times one million tons of rice. That is how much DA officials are making every year.
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Even the High Court seems to be changing its pro “Noynoy”policy with the election of Duterte. The Supreme Court has finally woken up from its apparent slumber and has decided to look seriously about allegations of massive cheating in the just concluded national elections held last month.
It is good that the Supreme has decided to compel the Comelec to explain the apparent mysterious sudden upsurge and abrupt fall of votes as well as the discrepancy of votes for president and vi ce president. I think the Supreme Court was compelled to issue the order to the Comelec in view of the furor raised by the church, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPRCV) and other private sectors regarding the alleged “dagdag-bawas” scheme implemented by the Aquino administration.
Comelec should act on these allegations of massive fraud to protect the integrity of the elections and erase any doubts of any conspiracy committed by President Aquino and his allies to favor their candidates.
The Comelec should conduct an independent and through investigation in fairness to all candidates, particularly to incoming Vice President Leni Robredo, who is perceived to be a beneficiary of the “dagdag-bawas” scheme.
I find it suspicious that the Comelec, particularly Chairman Andres Bautista, seemed reluctant in investigating the alleged cheating despite glowing evidence documented and presented by several parties.Despite videos showing irregularities in the May 9 national elections posted in the social media from the public, Comelec still refused to initiate an investigation.
Bautista is claiming that the alteration of the hash code of the Comelec was done for “cosmetic” purposes only and will not in any way alter the election results. However, Bautista has no answer regarding the testimony of three IT personnel from Smartmatic who said that they were ordered to tamper the results to favor Roxas and Robredo.
Defeated vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos has recently filed an election protest. He lost to LP bet Robredo by only 263,473 votes.