Nine officers of the Bureau of Plant Industry will be relieved from their post while BPI officer-in-charge Vivencio Mamaril will be transferred to an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture effective next month, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Friday.
“Effective August 1, there will be a major overhaul in the BPI. This is the outcome of the recent controversy involving inaccurate listing of importers and suspicions of connivance between some BPI-National Plant Quarantine Services Division officials and importers,” said Piñol during the sidelines of the launching of the TienDA Farmers and Fishermen’s Outlet.
Piñol said Mamaril would be returned to his old assignment at the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Product Standards.
The DA chief, however, clarified that Mamaril’s transfer had nothing to do with the issue of corruption.
“In the case of Mamaril, I absolved him from any corruption. I respect the man and explained my decision. This is not an issue of corruption, this is being familiar with the people working it,” Piñol said.
“You have to understand that director Mamaril is a gentle spirit and when faced with people who I believed are veterans in this kind of operations, I don’t think he can really crack the whip,” he added.
Piñol said Mamaril would be replaced by Regional Technical Director of Davao George Culaste.
“The last straw was when I discovered, in spite of the absence of import permits for Chinese carrots in Tanauan City, during an inspection in the farmers market. For me I don’t want this department to be a laughing stock, I want people to understand they may succeed smuggling once, twice but they cannot do it blatantly,” said Piñol.
He hinted of other shakeups in the DA.
“I expect a total revamp of the quarantine office to just be the start. There will be other shakeups in the offices of DA. One year after I succeed office, I believe I have already determined what should be done so that there will be no corruption in this department,” said Piñol
He said he was looking at the efficiency of the procurement agency of the Office of the Secretary, general services, Agricultural Training Institute and Bureau of Animal Industry.
“When the procurement office is slow, it slow downs the operations of the whole agency Even the procurement of materials is slow, the delivery of services will also be slow. The procurement office must keep up with the pace of the implementing bodies,” said Piñol.