Bello denies misleading Duterte, chides labor group spokesperson

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.  INQUIRER FILE / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Tuesday rejected allegations that he misinformed President Rodrigo Duterte on the regularization of 300,000 workers.

Bello was reacting to claims by Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of the Associated Labor Unions – Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, that the workers were regularized by manpower agencies and labor contractors, not by the principals.

READ: Dole misinformed Duterte on promise of regularization, labor group claims

“Kung meron mang misinformation, palagay ko hindi galing sa atin, kay Alan (If there is misinformation, I think it doesn’t come from us, but from Alan),” Bello said in an interview with dzMM.

“Totoo yung aming sinasabi. Hindi lamang 300 [thousand]. In fact, more than 300 [thousand] (What we said is true. It’s not just 300 thousand. In fact, more than 300 thousand),” he added, saying the workers were regularized by their principals.

Bello also jokingly said that Duterte might hit him if he gave wrong data.

According to the labor secretary, some principal employers voluntarily regularized their workers and some have established their own regularization program. Others complied after being ordered by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), he said.

Bello said the DOLE had a list of regularized employees.

He earlier announced that the department planned to regularize 300,000 more contractual employees this year. /cbb

READ: DOLE to regularize 300,000 contractual workers in 2018