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| Bello cancels 'midnight deal', says Dela Torre will face investigation |
A war of words has erupted between Labor Secretary Silvestre
Bello and his former labor attaché to Hong Kong, Jalilo dela Torre, after the release
of a public statement revoking a deal the latter entered into while in office,
and announcing a formal probe into his possible culpability.
Dela Torre hit out at the announcement as an attempt to tarnish
his reputation, and is now said to be mulling his own legal recourse over the
fiasco.
Yesterday, Bello announced he was revoking what he called
the “midnight deal” entered into by Dela Torre early this year to upgrade the
system that the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Hong Kong has been using to
process work contracts and maintain a data base on workers and employers.
The deal with Polaris Tools Limited was at no cost to Polo,
but accredited employment agencies will have to pay for using the system.
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| Dela Torre questions Bello's motive; says contract was at no cost to Polo, so no public bidding was required |
The decision to revoke the deal came following an investigation into supposed irregularities in awarding the contract to Polaris. The probe team reportedly found the contract to have been entered into without public bidding “in grave disregard of the procedures of the Philippine procurement law.”
The statement also said there were no documents to show how
the supposed bidding was conducted, indicating “manifest haste and lack of
transparency attendant to the said bidding.”
However, the investigating team led by Labor Undersecretary
Claro Arellano, did not interview either Dela Torre or Polaris officials,
including its chief executive officer Jaime Deverall, who has always said his
company won the contract “fair and square.”
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Dela Torre blasted at the allegation that the contract,
signed in March this year, more than four months before he was recalled from
his Hong Kong post, was awarded in haste.
“Despite there being no law
requiring public bidding of an online system where no government money is to be
spent, we wanted to be transparent and requested several companies, including
the old provider, to submit proposals and asked them to present before a panel
of POLO HK officials and an agency. Four companies submitted and presented.
What is “hasty” about the procedure?,” he asked in a Facebook post.
He alleged the investigation was
prompted by a shadowy group of employment agencies in Hong Kong who sent an
unsigned letter to Bello months before his recall, complaining about the deal
that would have provided information for any infraction committed by a
recruiter at the touch of a finger.
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“Curiously, the Secretary took up
the cudgels for these shadowy agencies and ordered a probe,” Dela Torre said.
He also called it “strange” that neither
he nor Polaris was interviewed by the investigating team, suggesting a lack of
due process.
The controversy followed a
well-documented tangle between the two officials, with Bello trying to recall
Dela Torre twice during his cumulative term of three years as labor attaché.
The first attempt in February last year was met with fierce resistance from
Filipino community leaders, who even staged two well-covered protests in
support of Dela Torre.
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Despite this, Bello ordered Dela
Torre to return to the Home Office in March last year, and reportedly made him
write a statement admitting his alleged role in organizing the protests
supporting him. He was returned to Hong Kong in October last year, but in March
this year, was informed that he was being reassigned to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This was aborted when it emerged that the reassignment violated an election
ban.
Dela Torre was finally forced to
return to the Philippines at the end of July, although his tour of duty was
officially cut on Jul 7.
Posted below are the press
release issued by Dole, and Dela Torre’s reply via a Facebook post.
DOLE PRESS RELEASE:
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III ordered yesterday the
cancellation of what he called a “midnight deal” entered into by recalled labor
official in Hong Kong and a supplier of an online system for reporting and
processing of overseas Filipino workers in the autonomous Chinese territory.
The decision came following the investigation into the
reported irregularities in the procurement of the database system from Polaris
Tools Ltd. which was found to be done without public bidding in grave disregard
of the procedures of the Philippine procurement law.
Bello also ordered a formal probe of former Hong Kong Labor
Attaché Jalilo de la Torre to establish his administrative and criminal
liability.
Last month, Bello constituted a fact-finding team to look
into issues involving POLO officials and systems providers Employeasy Limited
and Polaris Tools, both computer systems providers in Hong Kong.
Undersecretary Claro Arellano, head of the fact-finding
team, noted that the previous database system used by POLO Hong Kong from 2009
to 2018, which is provided by Employeasy had no authority from the then DOLE
secretary.
Also, there were no documents that would show the conduct of
bidding to replace the expired contract of Employeasy Limited with the supposed
new service provider Polaris Tools, indicating “manifest haste and lack of
transparency attendant to the said bidding,” he added.
DE LA TORRE’S REPLY:
“Regarding
this unbelievable and unprecedented action of the Secretary’s cancelling the
“midnight deal” between myself and Polaris, let me clarify the following: 1)
The decision to change the provider has been considered for a long time because
it has become obvious that Employ Easy, the old provider, has become
unresponsive to our requests for changes and improvements in the system.
Agencies and POLO users have been complaining about the difficulty in using it.
Later on, we uncovered something more sinister: the owner of EmployEasy and
Helper DB, an online job matching service, are one and the same person, a clear
conflict of interest. Changing the system and the provider was an obvious,
moral and legal choice. 2) Despite there being no law requiring public bidding
of an online system where no government money is to be spent, we wanted to be
transparent and requested several companies, including the old provider, to
submit proposals and asked them to present before a panel of POLO HK officials
and an agency. Four companies submitted and presented. What is “hasty” about
the procedure? 3) A few weeks before I left Hong Kong, a group of agencies
styling itself as “seeking justice” wrote to the President and the Secretary
alleging lack of consultations, no public bidding, and that the contract was
hastily entered into. Curiously, the Secretary took up the cudgels for these
shadowy agencies and ordered a probe. 4) The probe team went to Hong Kong and
interviewed people. Strangely, they neither called me nor Polaris to testify.
5) The Secretary has been heard and seen publicly “rescinding” the contract, of
which he is not a party, and describing the contract as “midnight”, implying
there was corruption. At the same time, he ordered a probe of my possible
administrative and criminal liability. I am compelled to go online and clarify
things, as my name and reputation are being sullied unnecessarily by forces
that have a dirty agenda. I have worked for the government for almost 30 years
and my name has never been dragged into any corrupt deals or transactions. I am
a recipient of many awards for performance, and of which I am very proud,
including the following: 1) DOLE Lingkod Manggagawa Award for Innovation,
Individual Category, 2010; 2) Pusong OFW Award by the Blas F Ople Policy Center
and Training Center, 2017; 3) Certificate of 4) Gawad Tangol Migrante by the
United Filipinos in Hong Kong, 2019 and hundreds of other plaques and
commendations from Filipino communities in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Australia and in various regions in the country. These memorials glitter in and
around our stairs landing in our Cebu home. I am proud of these because these
are what I signed up and worked hard for. I am proud of the communities I have
served. I am proud of what I have done throughout my government career. I’m not
the one who has been involved in many cases of corruption. I’m not the one
siding with rogue agencies. I’m not the one with a shady reputation.”
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