Laviña to head NIA

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has appointed Peter T. Laviña, his spokesman during his election campaign this year, as chief of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), as confirmed by the Agriculture chief and Malacañang.

“Presidential campaign spokesman and now Deputy Cabinet secretary Peter Tiu Laviña has been chosen by President Rody Duterte as the new administrator of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA),” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in his Facebook post on Tuesday, citing his source as Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Mr. Duterte’s special executive assistant.

Mr. Piñol described Mr. Laviña’s appointment as a “welcome relief for the Dept. of Agriculture (DA)....”

Mr. Laviña is the husband of DA Undersecretary Evelyn G. Laviña.

To recall, it was in Benigno S. C. Aquino III’s presidency when the NIA and other DA agencies were transferred to the Office of the President — to the detriment, according to the present Agriculture chief, of coordination between the two agencies with regards to scheduling irrigation for the farmlands.

Mr. Piñol said he expects Mr. Laviña’s appointment to bring “smoother coordination” between the DA and the irrigation agency.

As of Wednesday, NIA spokesperson Pilipina P. Bermudez said in a phone interview that “wala pa kaming natatanggap na ( We haven’t received) official information on that (Mr. Laviña’s appointment),” adding that NIA administrator Florencio Padernal remains in a holdover position in the agency.

Mr. Piñol’s recommended chief for the agency, Czar Sulaik, will assume as deputy administrator for operations. —