Malacanang appointed former Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources national director Asis Perez as Agriculture Undersecretary.
Perez, who is both a lawyer and graduate of veterinary medicine, has been designated by Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. as Undersecretary for Policy and Regulation.
“With Undersecretary Perez’s appointment, my DA team is essentially complete—a roster that is steeped in experience both in government and the private sector. I’m confident this team will help me fulfill the marching orders of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to modernize agriculture, ensure food security, and improve the lives of millions who depend on agriculture,” the agri chief said.
Usec. Perez served as BFAR national director during the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III. He helped increase the budget of BFAR, allowing the agency to launch more projects for the fisherfolk and the aquaculture sector. He also drafted rules to improve the sector.
Perez spearheaded the development and approval of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Roadmap on Food Security in 2016 and, a decade earlier, helped conceptualize and facilitate the First Environmental Enforcement Summit. He engineered the highly successful law enforcement efforts of several provincial task forces, including Isabela Provincial Forest Protection Task Force, Task Force Matatag of the Provincial Government of Quezon, and the Sierra Madre Task Force.
Perez became a member of the Supreme Court’s Sub-Committee on Rules of Procedures for Environmental Cases which drafted the Rules of Court for Environmental Cases in 2010, an experience that should serve him well in his new role in the DA.
He graduated in 1987 from the Francisco Balagtas College with a doctor’s degree in veterinary medicine and in 1992 earned his Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University. In 1994, he went to the Colorado State University to undergo Alternative Dispute Resolution Training.
