[2] Afterwards, he held a variety of jobs, including patient services specialist at the Swedish Medical Center, loan officer at the Bank of America, auditor of the Bellevue Sheraton Hotel, and customer relationship manager at KeyBank.
[6] On January 17, 2013, Calayag was appointed as NFA administrator ad interim to serve out the remaining six months of the term of Angelito Banayo, who resigned from the post to contest the May 2013 House of Representatives mid-term elections.
[2] Proceso Alcala, who had been appointed head of the Department of Agriculture, convinced Calayag to take up the post, and recommended him to President Benigno Aquino III.
[7] The Philippines is a net importer of rice; amidst a wider trend of governments in the Asia-Pacific region increasing their emergency grain stocks to guard against a repeat of panic-buying seen during the 2007–08 world food price crisis, Calayag indicated that the Philippines was aiming for self-sufficiency in food rather than continuing imports, and would invest in expansion and improvement of grain storage facilities.
[7] A number of lawmakers urged Calayag to step down, including Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and Carlos Zarate (of Bayan Muna), and Fernando Hicap (of Anakpawis).
Calayag and PCA administrator Euclides G. Forbes then both chose to step down from their respective positions on May 8 in order to allow Pangilinan to appoint his own preferred candidates to head the agencies.