A lawmaker who's also a livestock industry stakeholder has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to remain the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture until the third year of his tenure, to give current officials a sense of "fear" in doing their jobs.

"Its better for President Marcos Jr. to run the DA dahil lahat takot sa kanya. Even our economic managers ay takot sa kanya compared noong mga past administrations na sunod-sunuran lang ang DA secretary at ang Presidente sa economic managers. We see that his programs are for the benefit of local agriculture," said AGAP Partylist Representative Nicanor Briones, also a hog raiser and official of the Egg Council of the Philippines, in a press conference on Thursday in Manila.

He said the President should remain at the helm of DA until 2025, or when he already has strengthened the industry and made the prices of commodities more stable.

"The President was right in saying that the agriculture industry was neglected for more than three decades. As I see in three years' time, marami na syang mababago. We foresee him as the one who can ease agriculture smuggling, and most importantly, he already realized the long-clamored additional budget for the DA," he said.

At a recent media event, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president George Barcelon said Marcos Jr. will relinquish his post as DA Secretary this year, as he has already chosen a bona fide Agriculture chief.

"We heard from the grapevine that he will announce the new DA chief, and the announcement will be made soon," Barcelon said.

Barcelon said the incoming DA chief was "very good" in the industry to which he belongs.

Days ago, the name of Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., the owner of one of the world's biggest deep sea fishing companies Frabelle, floated in social media, with reports saying he would be announced as the next DA chief by President Marcos Jr.

Laurel is said to be one of Marcos Jr.'s top donors during the 2022 presidential election.

Stop EO 10

Briones, along with allies in the agriculture industry, has urged the President not to extend any more Executive Order Number 10, which reduces import duties for pork meat (fresh, chilled, or frozen), maize (corn) and rice.

The release of EO 10 has extended the implementation of EO 171, which reduced the Most Favored Nation tariff rates for the said commodities until 31 December 2023.

"Under the minimum access volume, the 30 percent import tariff was reduced to 15 percent, while under outside minimum access volume, the former 40 percent tariff rates for importation were reduced to 25 percent. Napakalaki ang nawala sa mga local producers ng baboy na hindi naman pinakikibangan ng consumers. Mataas pa rin ang presyo ng imported na karne ng baboy. Importers are the ones who benefited from the EO 10," said Briones.

Even rice farmers suffered a lot after the implementation of EO 10, which imposed a cut on rice importation tariff rates "from 50 percent to 35 percent, then 15 percent," according to Briones.

"Napakalaki ng nawawala sa taripa ng bigas na dapat ay naitutulong sa ating mga rice farmers. Umaabot na ito ng P14 to P15 billion a year. Maging sa mais. Yung EO 10 sabi noon ay pansamantala lang, pero pansamantagal na yata ito," he added.

He maintained that the economic managers are revealing their plans for the EO 10 extension this time when the House of Representatives is currently in recess, taking advantage of the situation.

Last week, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said economic managers, consisting of the Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, NEDA, and Department of Budget and Management, have agreed to extend EO 10 as the President's financial advisers would not want to see further price pressures by scaling back the tariff to their old rates.

"As economic managers, we need to extend that until prices in the world market have eased up. However, EO 10's extension would need layers of approval, including from the NEDA Board and the Tariff Commission. There's a process we have to follow," Balisacan said.