Local execs hail Piñol's enlistment as agriculture secretary

COTABATO CITY – Local executives in Central Mindanao gave incoming President Rodrigo Duterte the proverbial two thumbs up” for selecting former North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol to become his agriculture secretary.Leading broadcast outfits in Southern Mindanao, among them the popular Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation, which has five Catholic stations scattered in the region, has been announcing Duterte’s decision since Monday. This is for us something so positive. This will mean very close linkages between our farmers and the department which is to be managed soon by someone from a province which is very near to us,” reelected Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said in an email Thursday. Physician Danda Juanday, appointed administrator of Cotabato City, said it would be easier for local officials now to transact with the department with Piñol at his helm. He is just a neighbor so to speak. To follow up projects in the central office of the department is very physically taxing and expensive,” said Juanday, touted as the alter-ego of the reelected Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani, Jr.Piñol, himself a farmer and breeder of homegrown bloodlines of large chickens, had served as chairman of the Liguasan Delta Development Task Force in 1995, while mayor of Mlang town in North Cotabato.He was provincial governor of North Cotabato from 1998 to 2007 and, subsequently, vice governor for three years after completing successive three terms as chief executive of the province.A former print journalist, Piñol studied development communications at the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan town in North Cotabato, where he also earned a master’s degree on rural economic development. It would be an honor to serve the Filipinos as agriculture secretary under a Duterte administration,” Piñol told selected reporters Thursday via Facebook private message.Piñol said he would focus on vital programs needed to improve the productivity of farmers and help market abroad exportable local farm products such as processed rubber and palm oil. Our farmers are complaining of very low prices in both raw and processed rubber despite the very high demand for it in the Philippines and abroad,” he said.Duterte announced early this week in Davao City his having chosen Piñol as his agricultural secretary.