Lilac Center presses for Sec. Bello’s ouster




Former DOLE undersecretary for employment Nicon F. Fameronag, now president of the Lilac Center for Public Interest, a private policy advocacy and research organization, yesterday renewed is call urging Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte to fire Department and Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III.

“In all the consultations of the Lilac Center with former and present employees of the DOLE, trade unions, and employers after we urged the President in July remove from office Sec. Bello, the overwhelming sentiment is that he ought to go now. He must resign or be fired as he is already an encumbrance to the President and his administration because of the multiple controversies hounding him in the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission,” Fameronag said in a statement yesterday at a press conference of the Kilusang Pagbabago National Movement for Change.

The President’s labor and employment agenda is suffering from a beating, Fameronag said, partly because of the controversies surrounding the DOLE, such as the graft and corruption investigation of the PACC and the unexplained lapses in the execution of the DOLE’s multi-billion budget in 2017 as exposed by ACTS OFW Party-list Representative Aniceto “John” D. Bertiz III.

In July, the Lilac Center said the corruption allegations against Secretary Bello and those of his closest aides was no longer just a whiff, but is a stinking smell and deafening noise that demoralizes the men and women of the DOLE, and that under the present situation, the DOLE bureaucracy could not implement labor and employment programs as fast as they could because their leader is under a cloud of suspicion for wrongdoing.

Before his state visit to Israel, President Duterte was quoted to have said he need not fire Sec. Bello because he will resign this September or October to run as a candidate for the Senate.

“For many, this may be the President’s way of gracefully showing the door to his friend and former classmate, but to us at the Lilac Center and to millions of OFWs and workers and employers, this is already a direct telegraphic message that Sec. Bello ought to read: “Don’t wait for me to fire you. Leave now”, Fameronag said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POPCOM, gagamit ng ‘digital platforms’ para pagtibayin ang mga ugnayang pampamilya

Mas pinalalawig ng Komisyon sa Populasyon at Pagpapaunlad (POPCOM) ang adhikain nitong pagpapalaganap at pagpapabuti ng pakikipag-ugnayan ng mga nakakatandang Pilipino sa kanilang mga anak na nagdadalaga at nagbibinata. Nitong Setyembre 21, ang POPCOM ay nagsagawa ng isang “parent-teen talk webinar” gamit ang Zoom, kung saan ang isang “interactive program” ang nagbigay ng naaayon na kaalaman at kasanayan sa mga magulang, habang tumulong ito sa mga anak na teenager na maabot ang kanilang buong potensyal. Hinikayat din nito ang mga nanay at tatay na sumali sa malayang usapan, lalo na sa mga usapin ukol sa sex at sekswalidad, na nakikitang makakatulong upang bumaba ang mga bilang ng mga pagbubuntis sa hanay ng mga kabataan. Maaaring mapanood ang webinar sa https://youtu.be/lZ9jrJCjYas. Ayon kay Ikalawang Kalihim (Undersecretary) Juan Antonio A. Perez III, MD, MPH, “ang webinar ay naging isang tagapag-simula at ‘padaluyan’ ng pag-uu
Read more

UP Diliman Professors Share Scientists’ Procurement Struggles at Senate Hearing

By Harvey Sapigao Senate hearing of the revised procurement law (Photo credit: Senate of the Philippines) College of Science (CS) Dean Giovanni Tapang held up a little white device as he finished his presentation. “This is a ₱150,000 component,” he described. “Isa lang gumagawa nito sa buong mundo, pero ang hirap pilitin sila na magregister sa PhilGEPS,” he continued, referring to the requirement that foreign companies must first register to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) before they can sell products to local scientists. Marine Science Institute (MSI) Deputy Director Dr. Irene Rodriguez explained that the small device is a resin that filters metals in water. “May budget tayo,” she said, “pero ang problema ko ay ‘yung resin na ito.” This and other bottlenecks brought about by the procurement law, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184), slow down research and development in the country. UPD leaders were invited to the Senate he
Read more

Gaza war rages into fourth month as Blinken tours Middle East Adel Zaanoun with Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, --- Agence France-Presse

The Israel-Hamas war raging in Gaza entered its fourth month on Sunday as the army again pounded the besieged Palestinian territory and US top diplomat Antony Blinken was back in the region seeking to avoid a wider escalation. Israeli airstrikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 64 people in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory, said its health ministry. It said two journalists were killed when their car was struck. The ministry, medics, and witnesses identified them as Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for Agence France-Presse, and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza who earlier lost his wife and two other children in an Israeli strike. Israeli bombardment also claimed other civilian lives in the southern city of Khan Yunis and in the Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where many of the territory's displaced people have sought refuge, AFP correspondents reported. Relatives were mourning the dead at Khan Yunis' European Hospital, am
Read more