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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
After two intensive public
hearings, the Commission on Appointments unanimously confirmed on
Wednesday the ad interim appointment of Agrarian Reform Secretary
Nasser Pangandaman.
Pangandaman is the fifth Cabinet
member to be confirmed by the bicameral body. Those confirmed before
him were Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Science and
Technology Secretary Esperanza Cabral, Trade Secretary Peter Favila
and Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of
the Appointments Committee on Agrarian Reform, said that Pangandaman
had satisfactorily explained the policy direction of the Department
of Agrarian Reform under his stewardship, and his vision for the
department.
“He is capable of holding the
agrarian reform portfolio as shown by the unanimous endorsement of
his confirmation by the committee,” Biazon said in moving for
Pangandaman’s confirmation.
Biazon’s motion was seconded by
Pangasinan Rep. Conrado Estrealla 3rd, the grandson of the first and
longest head of the DAR. He said that Pangandaman will be an
innovative secretary of the department.
A lone oppositor to
Pangandaman’s confirmation cited the memorandum of agreement he
had signed with China for the development of two million idle upland
areas for the production of sorghum, corn, jatropha and other crops.
However, Rep. Jose Yap of Tarlac
said that the appointments commission found Pangandaman’s
explanations very credible. Yap even criticized the problems caused
by oppositors to the “worthy” project of DAR with China’s
assistance.
Pangandaman, from Lanao del Sur,
is the son of former Ambassador and former Gov. Liningding
Pangandaman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Pangandaman’s family used to be at odds politically with the
Dimaporo family but Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte said
that they have set aside their old political differences and even
voted for Pangandaman.
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