MANILA — Malacañang said Thursday the issue involving the presence of former National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Jason Aquino in a recent meeting of the NFA Council has been “settled.”
“Tapos na po ‘yang isyu na iyan (That issue is finished). I had a talk with SAP (Special Assistant to the President Christopher) Bong Go last night and that issue has been settled; he (Aquino) (is) no longer in NFA,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing, a day after he was surprised by Aquino’s attendance in the meeting despite having already resigned from his post at agency.
He said he also sought clarification from President Rodrigo Duterte himself about Aquino’s role in the NFA.
“Medyo magulo po ang schedule ng Presidente ngayon at punung-puno rin (The President’s schedule is messy and full). But, I sought clarification and I was given clarification – tapos na po iyan (it’s over),” Roque said.
In an interview over CNN on Wednesday, Roque said Duterte himself bared that he has accepted Aquino’s resignation.
“I think it was clear from the President’s mouth himself that he has accepted the resignation of Jayson Aquino,” he said.
Roque added that there will be no vacuum in the leadership because there’s always a deputy administrator to take over when the administrator’s post is vacant.
He earlier said he is willing to file malversation and graft charges against Aquino for his decision not to use the PHP5.1 billion subsidy from the national government to buy rice from local farmers to boost the buffer stock, which resulted in the shortage of NFA rice and price increases.
Roque, who said he was “personally angered” by this development, also blamed how Aquino managed the country’s rice woes as having affected the President’s approval and trust rating.
“The President knows that this rice crisis could have been prevented had NFA done its job. NFA should have bought rice, because it had the funds to do so,” he said.
Duterte first bared that Aquino wanted to be relieved of his post during a televised interview last September 11. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
