With the exposé of the multimillion-peso garlic scam involving officials and agencies of his department, I think it is time for Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to take a page from former Health Secretary Enrique Ona’s book: Take a leave of absence so that the investigation currently being conducted by the Department of Justice can proceed without any tinge of doubt. It may be recalled that, aside from this scam, when the National Food Authority was still under his control, rice smugglers and hoarders made billions of pesos while majority of Filipinos, especially those earning less than P200 a day, suffered from high rice prices.
Even assuming that Alcala told the truth when he denied his involvement in these scams, don’t these show how weak a leader he is? He has been agriculture secretary for almost five years and yet, he says he didn’t know that these things were happening in his department. Or maybe he knew but simply chose to do nothing about them.
When this administration began in 2010, President Aquino promised everyone that one of the pillars of his administration would be good governance. Apparently, one of his most trusted men missed the pertinent memo.
—HARVEY S. KEH, executive director, Institute for Governance and Strategic Partnerships, harveykeh@gmail.com