MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday rejected calls to appoint a Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary instead of taking on the portfolio while also tending to his duties as chief executive.

Sen. Imee Marcos, the President’s sister, earlier said that it may be time to name a new DA chief considering the busy schedule of her brother.

“Problems are so difficult that it will take a president to change and turn it around,” the President told reporters on the sidelines of a business event in Metro Manila, adding that problems within the DA are “very deeply embedded.”

“Ito ay nangyari sa nakaraan, napakaraming taon, kaya hindi ganun ka bilis, hindi ganun kadali na ibalik sa ating magandang sistema dati. Kaya I think I'm still needed there,” he said.

Marcos said he would let go of the DA portfolio “when we are able to say that the DA’s functions are properly institutionalized and the structural changes that we need to make in the DA have been made.”

“Saka ako bibitaw because then they don’t need me anymore, they don’t need the president heading the department,” he said.

Since Marcos rose to power in June, the DA has yet to settle reports of sugar and onion smuggling in the country.

Earlier this year, several officials of the Sugar Regulatory Board tendered their resignation after Malacañang announced that they “illegally” approved a plan to import thousands of metric tons of sugar without Marcos’ approval.