Palace verifying reports NFA chief is US citizen

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is verifying reports that the administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA) is an American citizen, which is not allowed under the agency’s charter.

“There is an ongoing review and verification process to address other issues pertinent to this appointment,” Press Secretary Herminio Coloma yesterday told a news briefing, when sought for a reaction to the appointment of NFA administrator Orlan Calayag. The NFA charter allows only natural-born Filipinos to head the agency.

Coloma said Malacañang has a strict screening process for all applicants to appointive posts in government, and that hundreds, if not thousands, of documents go through the process everyday.

“There are hundreds of appointments being made that go to the Office of the President, and each one of those appointments goes through a vetting and screening process. So that is what was done in this case and in all other appointments,” he said.

Citing information provided by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Coloma explained that Calayag was only  serving the “unexpired term” of his predecessor Angelito Banayo who resigned from the post. Calayag’s appointment was effective from Jan. 17 to June 2013, according to Coloma. He was reappointed on July 12, 2013. “All of these are in accordance with Republic Act 10149 or the Governance Commission for GOCCs Law,” Coloma said.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala endorsed Calayag, who was his chief of staff when he was still a congressman from Quezon province. Alcala is a close friend of President Aquino, who himself had served as Tarlac congressman from 1998 to 2007.

Lawyer Argee Guevarra earlier raised the issue regarding Calayag’s citizenship, noting that even if dual citizenship is allowed under Philippine laws, renouncing one’s original citizenship and acquiring a new one violates and dilutes the natural-born requirement. 

Calayag flew back from the US to the Philippines in December 2011 bearing US Passport 462971672. He acquired dual citizenship on Jan. 7, 2013.

“How was Alcala able to dupe the President into signing Calayag’s appointment in the first place? Even assuming he has regained dual citizenship, still, that does not qualify him for appointment in our bureaucracy,” Guevarra pointed out.

Citing jurisprudence in Maquiling vs. Comelec (G.R. No. 195649, 16 April 2013) and Mercado vs. Manzano (G.R. No. 135083, 26 May 1999), Guevarra argued: “First, one who renounces his Philippine citizenship when he became an American citizen is no longer a natural-born citizen of the Philippines; second, even when he became a dual citizen under RA No. 9225 he does not automatically re-acquire his status as a natural-born citizen of the Philippines.”

DA chief told to quit

Rep. Carlos Zarate of the party-list group Bayan Muna, for his part, is asking Secretary Alcala to quit his job over his appointment of Calayag.

In making the appeal yesterday, Zarate said Alcala may not have informed President Aquino that Calayag holds dual citizenship.

Zarate, who is a lawyer, said a dual citizen should not be heading a sensitive agency like the NFA.

He pointed out that Aquino, apparently embarrassed over Alcala’s appointment of a Filipino-American as NFA chief, has asked the DA secretary why he recommended a dual citizen.

Zarate also called on Calayag to immediately quit to avoid further embarrassment to Aquino.   

He said the appointment of a dual citizen at NFA “is one of a string of anomalies that happened in the Department of Agriculture under Secretary Alcala.”

He said the anomalies include the transfer of hundreds of millions in pork barrel funds of certain senators and congressmen to bogus foundations associated with alleged pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles.

The funds were transferred as late as 2011 and last year despite red flags previously raised over the questionable transactions of the Napoles foundations, he said.

He added that it was either Alcala’s officials pulled a fast one on him or he tolerated the anomalies.   

Alcala has acknowledged that pork barrel fund-related irregularities happened in his department under his watch, and that he has ordered an inquiry.