President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed William Dar as Agriculture secretary and former Davao City administrator Wendel Avisado as acting Budget secretary, while Court of Appeals Justice Rodil Zalameda has been chosen as new associate justice of the Supreme Court.
The new appointments were confirmed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Monday.
Dar will replace Emmanuel Piñol who is set to become Duterte’s point man in the Bangsamoro region.
He briefly served as Agriculture chief during former President Joseph Estrada’s term and served as director-general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics from 1999 to 2014.
Dar also became the first director of the Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Research in 1988 and was designated director of the Philippine Council for Agricultural Research and Rural Development in 1994.
Avisado will head the Department of Budget and Management for the meantime, following the appointment of Benjamin Diokno as governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Avisado served as Davao City administrator from 2004 to 2010 under then-Mayor Duterte.
In 2010, Avisado was appointed to Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council as assistant secretary to then chairman and Vice President Jejomar Binay.
Zalameda, on the other hand, will replace retired justice Mariano del Castillo, reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 on July 29.
Zalameda, who earned his law degree from Ateneo de Manila University, bested five other shortlisted nominees including Court Administrator Midas Marquez and CA justices Apolinario Bruselas, Japar Dimaampao, and Ramon Garcia.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Monday expressed his full support for the appointment of Dar.
In a statement, Dominguez said Dar’s qualifications and vast experience would be good for the sector in general.
“William Dar has the educational qualifications, domestic and international experience in the field of agriculture,” Dominguez said.
Dar’s predecessor, Piñol, had clashed often with Dominguez and other members of the President’s economic team over agricultural policies, including the push to liberalize the importation of rice.
Senator Cynthia Villar on Monday urged Dar to ensure the return to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund of the P4-billion “unaccounted funds.”
She earlier filed a resolution to account for the amount released by the Department of Budget and Management in December since only P1 billion went to the accounts of farmers. With Macon Ramos-Araneta