FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. has joined other Cabinet members in opposing the controversial order of the transition secretary for the newly minted Department of Migrant Workers, mandating the hasty transfer of workers and funds, and throwing the OFW sector in turmoil.
The shakeup caused by the order of Secretary Abdullah Mama-o, which has been stopped by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, has put him directly against Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, one of the departments to be affected by the new law. Bello has said that Mama-o cannot simply order the transfer of funds and staff during this election season, as the DMW was given by law two years for the transition.
On Thursday, Locsin also chided the order to transfer of OFW funds to “alleged officials of a non-existent office.”
Locsin insisted the Assistance to Nationals Fund and the Legal Assistance Fund allocated by Congress to the DFA this year should remain with the DFA.
“The new department is for the next administration to set up. We are not transferring funds to alleged officials of a non-existent office. While we are responsible for OFW concerns, we retain the funds Drilon set aside for DFA to continue its consistently honest service to OFWs,” Locsin tweeted.
This, as Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said Mama-o cannot transfer employees and officers from the agencies to be absorbed to the new department because of the election ban. His actions are contrary to law, stressed Drilon, a former executive secretary, labor secretary and justice secretary.
“He is a king without a kingdom. He has no department to lead,” said Drilon, referring to Mama-o.
Transition
In a separate statement, the DFA said the DMW is currently undergoing its two-year transition period, and is “yet to publish its Implementing Rules and Regulations.”
However, Susan Ople, head of the nongovernment organization Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, said the new DMW secretary signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the DMW Act “and had it published without the approval and knowledge of the other members of the Transition Committee.
“None of the Transition Committee members knew about the contents of the IRR to be signed and that it was to be signed on that day,” Ople said in her BusinessMirror column on Thursday (April 7, 2022). “Even the leaders of the recruitment industry and civil society organizations that belong to the Overseas Land-based Tripartite Consultative Council were not invited to the IRR signing.”
The DFA said that while they support the efforts of the DMW to become “fully operational post-haste so that it may fulfill its vital mandate,” they believe that all the agencies that will be subsumed under it are “still under the control and supervision of their respective parent agencies until such time as the legal requisites have been fulfilled for the DMW to be deemed fully constituted.”
Ople said “overseas employment sector is in a state of shock.”
Raul de Vera, labor and management consultant, warned that the turf war between Mama-o and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III “threatens to disrupt operations” of the POEA as the DMW Secretary has issued a memorandum to POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia to “cease and desist from exercising any and all powers and functions as administrator of the POEA.”
“Both parties should heed the order of Executive Secretary Medialdea to remain calm,” De Vera said, adding that Mama-o should just “listen to the legal, legislative and constitutional luminaries” with regard to the status of his position.
Drilon said Mama-o has an erroneous interpretation of Republic Act 11641 or the law creating the Department of Migrant Workers.
“His actions are not befitting of a secretary. His issuances have no basis and only disrupt what should have been a smooth transition. Clearly, he is putting his personal interest above the needs of the industry that the law seeks to protect. The President should immediately fire him,” Drilon said on Thursday.
“Being a former labor secretary, I am very much concerned about what is happening in the industry and its stakeholders—the labor sector, OFWs and migrant workers. They are the ones caught in the crossfire because of Mr. Mama-o’s actions. His actions are detrimental to the very sector that RA 11641 seeks to protect,” Drilon emphasized.
Drilon warned that Mama-o can be held liable for usurpation of authority if he continues to exercise the functions of the DMW even if the department is yet to be constituted.
Section 23 of RA 11641 clearly states that the department shall not be constituted without an appropriation in the 2023 General Appropriations Act, an effective implementing rules and regulations, and a staffing pattern. The language of the law is mandatory and admits no other interpretation, said Drilon, who had proposed the amendment in Section 23 to signal the clear “legislative intent.”