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[av_heading heading=’ Agriculture sec Piñol to Paner: Just shut up ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RANIE AZUE
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BACOLOD City – Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol advised Anna Rosario Paner yesterday to just “shut up” about her sacking as Sugar Regulatory Administration head.
Paner should understand that presidential appointees “should just get out and keep quiet” when the president orders them to leave their posts, Piñol said.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said he fired Paner for hiring three Sugar Board consultants earning P200,000 a month each.
Later Paner said she was a victim of politicking and a “collateral damage” due to her stand against the importation of high-fructose corn syrup, an alternative sweetener that local sugar industry stakeholders are bucking.
He will “not play the game of Annie Paner,” the Agriculture secretary told the press. “I do not know what her purpose is in making such statements.”
Piñol also refuted claims that the newly appointed SRA administrator, Hermenegildo Serafica, was his personal choice.
Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez recommended the sugarcane planter from Ormoc City, Leyte to him and he simply indorsed Serafica to Duterte, Piñol said.
Piñol met with Negros Occidental governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday and visited farmers in Bago City and Ilog town. He was also scheduled to meet with sugar industry stakeholders today./PN
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