NFA, PCA put under DA’s wings

The National Food Authority (NFA) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) are now back under the wing of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The STAR got a copy yesterday of Executive Order No. 81 which President Arroyo signed Monday to immediately return the NFA and PCA to the DA as attached agencies.

Last year, Mrs. Arroyo detached the two agencies from the DA and placed them under the Office of the President (OP).

Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo told The STAR yesterday Mrs. Arroyo removed the NFA and PCA from the OP upon his recommendation and that of Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor.

"We think it’s time to return them to their original department," he said.

The transfer of the two agencies took place after the OP’s streamlining had been completed by the Presidential Commission on Effective Governance (PCEG), he added.

Romulo said the return of the NFA and PCA was consistent with Mrs. Arroyo’s move to transfer the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) from the OP to the DA.

"Because Philrice has something to do with the creation of our million new jobs where Presidential Adviser Sito Lorenzo is in charge," he said.

Romulo said Mrs. Arroyo’s action was prompted by last year’s Supreme Court decision on the coco levy funds and the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), which was favorable to the government.

"We, I mean the government, has already installed the new board of directors of UCPB," he said. "So I think everything is in place."

When Mrs. Arroyo returned Philrice to the DA through Executive Order No. 76 last March 4, she said she wanted to ensure the full implementation of the government’s Hybrid Rice Program.

Under the program, hybrid rice shall be planted on 135,000 hectares of land this year; another 200,000 hectares next year; and a further 300,000 hectares in 2004.

Mrs. Arroyo has ordered Montemayor to allocate and "realign" P450 million as funding support from the budget of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program.

On Dec. 12 last year, Mrs. Arroyo issued Administrative Order No. 25 to set up the Hybrid Rice Program. –Marichu Villanueva