PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is tapping retired Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Ricardo Visaya as the new head of the National Irrigation Administration.
In a chance interview with reporters, Duterte announced Tuesday that Visaya will replace Peter Laviña, who resigned as NIA chief last week amid allegations of corruption.
“This [agency] has a P150-billion budget; that’s why we need to have a man on top,” he added.
Visaya, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1983, retired as the 48th AFP chief last December. He was succeeded by Gen. Eduardo Año.
Before heading the 125,000-strong Armed Forces, Visaya served as chief of the Southern Luzon Command, assistant division commander of the 6th Infantry Division in Cotabato, and commander of the 104th Brigade in Sultan Kudarat.
He was also the ground commander in Tarlac and Pampanga when the Hacienda Luisita massacre occurred in 2004.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol also confirmed Visaya’s appointment.
“Last night the President announced that the new NIA administrator will be retired AFP chief Ricardo Visaya and the deputy administrator is engineer C’zar Sulaik, the director for CARAGA region,” added Pinol.
Piñol said that Visaya was a personal choice of the President.
In a post on social media, Laviña said there were “false rumors” that he had accepted money from contractors for government projects. He denied these allegations, noting that he is quitting so as not to add to the attacks against officials of the Duterte administration.
“I have been vilified in the past; my name used, abused and maligned. Recently, there had been efforts to discredit me again. There are rumors circulating that I have asked money from NIA contractors. These are not true!” Laviña said.
“To spare the President from these embarrassing stories, particularly in these times of intensified attacks on him, I have quietly left government. I have neither personal vested interest in it nor ill intent towards NIA and the whole government, which we are trying to reform,” added Laviña.
But even before he resigned, the President said in a speech that he had to fire somebody from Davao but did not mention the name.
Duterte later confirmed he had asked Laviña to resign. With Florante S. Solmerin
