Bello: PACC broke mandate by identifying people under probe

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday said the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) violated its own mandate when one of its commissioners disclosed that it was investigating him and two other Cabinet members for alleged corruption.

Under Executive Order No. 43, which created the PACC in October 2017, the commission and its personnel should “not disclose or make public any record or information” of its ongoing investigation when such may deprive the respondent of a “fair and impartial investigation.”

No copy of complaint

Bello lamented that the PACC had yet to provide him with a copy of the complaint against him or the chance to respond to the charges.

PACC Chair Dante Jimenez earlier said that Bello knew about the charges against him as early as last year, when former Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say was embroiled in an alleged P6.8-million extortion case involving Azizzah International Manpower Services.

On Monday, PACC Commissioner Manuelito Luna disclosed that Bello, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Isidro Lapeña and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Chair Leonor Oralde-Quintayo were being investigated for alleged corrupt activities. —Jovic Yee