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| Labatt Dizon in Greece, his last overseas post before HK (photo from his Facebook account) |
A senior official of the Department of Labor and
Employment is set to take up the post of Philippine labor attaché to Hong Kong
tomorrow, Feb. 23.
Lawyer Melchor B. Dizon, who previously served as
labor attaché in Greece, Libya and Taiwan, will make a courtesy call on Consul
General Raly Tejada in the morning, before assuming his post as head of the Philippine Overseas Labor
Office.
Dizon arrived in Hong Kong from Manila Friday
night. He hails from San Pablo, Laguna, and obtained his
law degree from Arellano University.
He worked at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) before serving as labor attache.
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He worked at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) before serving as labor attache.
He was posted to Tripoli during the 2014 evacuation
of Filipino nationals from Libya amid an outbreak of civil unrest. The year
before, he brokered a deal that allowed Filipino nationals in Taiwan to get
paid annual vacation. His last overseas posting was in Athens, Greece.
He takes over the position left vacant by the recall
to Manila in July last year of popular labor attaché Jalilo dela Torre, who
opted for retirement instead of taking up the offer to move to Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia.
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Dela Torre was twice recalled by Labor Secretary
Silvestre Bello III for allegedly playing favorites with employment agencies,
but Filipino community leaders staged widely publicized protests against the
order.
In the latest case, Bello based his recall on a supposedly
unauthorized deal brokered by Dela Torre to upgrade Polo’s 13-year-old online
contract processing system.
Assistant Labor Attache Antonio Villafuerte was
appointed officer-in-charge at Polo pending the appointment of a new head.
Dizon takes over as top labor official in Hong Kong
amid a worsening outbreak of the novel coronavirus, also known as Covid-19,
which has left many OFWs vulnerable to discrimination and possible abuse,
including being prevented from taking their weekly day-off.
