Lilac Center asks: Can Secretary Bello give what he has not?




Can the Secretary of Labor and Employment give a power which the law says does not belong to him? The courts might very well settle this question.

The Lilac Center for Public Interest, Inc. yesterday posed this dilemma after DOLE Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III announced in a press release that he has “designated” the POEA administrator as “authorized representative of the Secretary on matters related to the issuance and renewal of licenses and authorities to engage in the recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment and the grant of exemptions from the age requirement for overseas workers.”

The announcement came after he signed on 31 July 2018 Administrative Order No. 443, which also revoked his own Administrative Order No. 241.

It can be recalled that Sec. Bello issued A.O. 241 on 6 June 2017 to arrogate upon himself the authority on matters related to the issuance and renewal of licenses; authorities to engage in the recruitment and placement of workers for overseas employment; the grant of exemptions from the ban on direct hiring; and the grant of exemptions from the age requirement for overseas workers.

This authority was bestowed by then Secretary of Labor and Employment Bienvenido Laguesma upon then POEA Administrator Reynaldo Regalado, by virtue of A.O. No. 144 S. of 1998.

But Nicon F. Fameronag, Lilac Center president, said this was before the effectivity of R.A. 10022 which amended RA 8042.

He explained that the law now in effect is R.A. 10022, “An Act Amending Republic Act No. 8042, Otherwise Known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act Of 1995, As Amended, Further Improving the Standard of Protection and Promotion of the Welfare of Migrant Workers, Their Families and Overseas Filipinos in Distress, and For Other Purposes,” approved on July 27, 2009.

Under this law, he further said, the authority to regulate private sector overseas recruitment and placement agencies, conferred by Congress, is with the POEA, not with the Secretary of Labor and Employment.

“On this matter the POEA does not represent or act for the DOLE Secretary. The POEA is the authority. The DOLE Secretary serves as chairman of the POEA Governing Board. As chairman he cannot act on his own without the concurrence of the board,” Fameronag, a former DOLE undersecretary, further said.

“If we are reading the law right, the authority of the DOLE Secretary is limited to presiding over the POEA Governing Board,” he added.

Fameronag said the specific provision empowering and authorizing the POEA is contained in
Section 14, Subparagraph (b.1) of paragraph (b) of Section 23 of Republic Act No. 8042, as amended, and reads as follows:

"(b.1.) Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. - The Administration shall regulate private sector participation in the recruitment and overseas placement of workers by setting up a licensing and registration system. It shall also formulate and implement, in coordination with appropriate entities concerned, when necessary, a system for promoting and monitoring the overseas employment of Filipino workers taking into consideration their welfare and the domestic manpower requirements. It shall be responsible for the regulation and management of overseas employment from the pre-employment stage, securing the best possible employment terms and conditions for overseas Filipino workers, and taking into consideration the needs of vulnerable sectors and the peculiarities of sea-based and land-based workers. In appropriate cases, the Administration shall allow the lifting of suspension of erring recruitment/manning agencies upon the payment of fine of Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000.00) for every month of suspension.

“Secretary Bello was in error when he delegated, under A.O. 443 S. of 2018, the authority he no longer has, especially when he said:

"With the latest issuance, the authority to act on overseas employment-related matters is given back to the administrator of POEA, serving as the authorized representative of the Labor Secretary."

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