{"id":181077,"date":"2018-09-11T21:41:37","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T01:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=181077"},"modified":"2018-09-11T21:41:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T01:41:37","slug":"prrd-scout-new-nfa-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/11\/prrd-scout-new-nfa-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD to scout for new NFA chief"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cI will scout for a new one,” he said. (File Photo: ALFRED FRIAS\/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jason Aquino has requested to be relieved from his post amid the country\u2019s rice woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cJason Aquino has requested that he be relieved already,\u201d Duterte said in a televised interview with Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on state-run PTV 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he is tired and he cannot cope with the\u00a0laro diyan sa<\/em>\u00a0(game) inside, because we cannot be in agreement all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he will soon look for Aquino\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will scout for a new one,” he said.<\/p>\n

Amid calls for the resignation of Aquino, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Pi\u00f1ol and other officials, Duterte earlier said the solution to the country\u2019s rice problems does not \u201cnecessarily\u201d involve firing people.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, all officials including me, are bound by laws on the matter. Rice, whatever it is, there are laws to be followed. Maybe the laws are weak or unenforceable. All we have to do is to improve on those laws, not necessarily fire people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, said he believes the rice shortage is caused by \u201cman-made manipulation,\u201d such as hoarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shortage is caused by man-made manipulation.\u00a0Sabihin mo nawala ang bigas, kung tingnan mo<\/em>\u00a0(You say the rice is missing, when you look), it\u2019s in the warehouses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte previously warned rice hoarders not to test his patience, saying he would not hesitate to exercise his emergency powers and ask police to raid warehouses.<\/p>\n

The President also bared that he is considering setting up barter trade with Sabah as an option to augment the country\u2019s rice supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll just set up the barter trade again, depending on\u00a0papayag ang<\/em>\u00a0the finance people (if the finance people will agree),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShortages are always there. The economic life of the country cannot be all beds of roses.\u00a0Wala namang hinto yung<\/em>\u00a0importation\u00a0natin<\/em>\u00a0(Our importation is continuous) but if worse comes to worst, I will open Sabah,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he is also considering recommending the abolition of the NFA Council, the NFA\u2019s policy-making body.<\/p>\n

\u201cI may recommend to Congress the abolition of the NFA Council. It has not done any purpose and it only hinders the operation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said he hopes lawmakers would approve the proposed rice tariffication bill to liberalize rice importation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng gusto ko, sabi ko yung<\/em>\u00a0tariffication.\u00a0Alisin na lang yan<\/em>\u00a0(I want, what I said tariffication. Just remove that). Free for all, anybody can import,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rice importation currently is covered by a quantitative restriction, which allows importers to purchase rice from overseas based on their license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jason Aquino has requested to be relieved from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":180474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}