Redundant

The post is redundant and superfluous. The appointment looks suspiciously like it was done in aid of reelection — at public expense, of course.

Last Tuesday, former senator Francis Pangilinan took his oath of office as “Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization.” That sounds like a really fancy title, until we realize that “food security” and “agricultural modernization” constitute the entire mission of an existing government agency. It is called the Department of Agriculture.

Last year, two staunch pro-Aquino senators “graduated” after their second consecutive terms of office. These were Francis Pangilinan and Panfilo Lacson. Immediately after they stepped down, there was intense speculation about the two getting appointments in the executive branch, the better to keep them in the public eye and ready for reelection come 2016.

Lacson was expected to be appointed as some sort of “anti-corruption czar” — a post that would have given him broad powers over all government agencies. Not everyone in the President’s inner circle was comfortable with that idea. When Yolanda struck, it became convenient to instead appoint Lacson “rehabilitation czar,” a post with no budget, no personnel and with little influence over the regular agencies of government.

Pangilinan was widely expected to get a Cabinet appointment, taking over the powerful Agriculture post from the scandal-prone Proceso Alcala. In this case, too, there seemed to be powerful forces wanting to keep Alcala where he was.

With those powerful forces decided on keeping Alcala in his post despite meager achievement and mounting scandals, Pangilinan retreated to his small farm in Alfonso, Cavite. There he found reincarnation as a gentleman farmer, tending vegetables while politically vegetating.

Alcala, meanwhile, seemed to enjoy the President’s ear — notwithstanding that he made his boss look foolish by convincing him to repeat his impossible mantra about rice “self-sufficiency.” Although the country was once a rice exporter, we have since degenerated into the biggest rice importer in the world. Just last month, the NFA, despite charges of overpricing, approved the importation of 800,000 metric tons of the staple crop from Vietnam.

A happy resolution was eventually found. A new post was invented to accommodate Pangilinan without junking Alcala.

Presidential assistants normally carry the rank of undersecretary. Pangilinan, it seems, will carry Cabinet rank (as Lacson does). If this practice goes on and on, this administration might soon set a record for the most populous Cabinet ever.

This should be a minor concern, however. Full Cabinet meetings are rarely held under this presidency.

For that matter, the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council is never convened even as the law requires it to meet on a regular basis. Nor has the National Security Council, which includes the former presidents, ever been convened.

The executive order creating the new post for Pangilinan provides a description of functions in an almost generic way. The functions of the new post are:  coordinate and monitor, in conjunction with the National Steering Committee and Technical Working Group for the National Convergence Initiative (NCI), all policies, programs, projects and activities relating to the NCI; exercise oversight over the NFA, NIA, PCA and FPA with respect to the implementation of policies, programs, projects and activities; submit to the President, through the executive secretary, reports and recommendations in connection with his functions; and, perform such other functions and activities as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Order, as may be directed.

Pangilinan described his work in even more obscure terms. He says he will undertake a “combination of interventions.” In addition, he will be “making people account for their acts through evidence” ostensibly though support for “those who are well-meaning.” He will also “provide direction to agencies,” suggesting they are presently directionless.

What a disappointment. Considering he qualified for this post due to his 12-year service as chair of the Senate committee on agriculture, Pangilinan surely must have more definable ideas and more concrete programs in mind.

His utterances do not suggest that. He seemed to understand food security as “securing our farmers” by raising their incomes. Given the structural constraints on our agriculture, raising rural incomes can only be done by raising farm gate prices.

But Pangilinan quickly contradicts that. He says that he will ensure lower rice prices. Again, given the structural constraints, the only way to do that is to open the doors to cheap food imports even as this will condemn our farmers to extinction.

Nothing Pangilinan said so far indicates he understands the difference between “food sufficiency” and “food security.” Nothing he said so far indicates he is aware of the urgencies confronting our agriculture considering the Asean common market kicks in next January.

In the end, Pangilinan admits he was tasked to “clean up” the four corruption-prone agencies assigned to his turf. In which case, he does not need the grasp of agricultural issues that is presumably his unique qualification for this job. What cleaning up these agencies require are managerial skills and a willingness to let heads roll.

If Pangilinan was brought in to clean up the mess, then why not save on the public payroll by simply kicking out Alcala? The fact that we have to hire a presidential assistant to look over the shoulders of the sitting head of agency is the best evidence of incompetence at the very least.

If Pangilinan’s role boils down to cleaning up failing agencies, why even give him the fancy title? By doing so, we are forcing the poor man to mouth pompous inanities to assure us he deserves the superfluous job.