Labor, PSG chiefs named

Silvestre Bello. INQUIRER.net PHOTO/Nestor Corrales

DAVAO CITY—Presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte  has picked former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III to be his secretary of labor and employment and Col. Rolando Bautista, commander of a military force fighting the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, to head the Presidential Security Group (PSG).

Duterte announced the appointments during a late-night news conference in Davao City on Saturday.

Bello, already named head of the government panel in the peace talks with the communist rebels, said he would accept his appointment as labor chief as well.

“I was surprised. Yet I am elated and I would gladly accept the position,” Bello told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

He said, however, that Duterte, the outgoing mayor of Davao City, has yet to inform him about his new appointment.

Bello is a known human rights lawyer in Davao. He was among those who helped defend former priest and rebel Leoncio Evasco, who became Duterte’s city administrator.

Evasco, who later became mayor of Maribojoc town in Bohol province, served as manager of Duterte’s campaign for the presidency.

Duterte also announced that Evasco would be the Cabinet secretary.

In announcing Bello’s appointment as labor chief, Duterte said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on his watch would put an end to contractualization.

“Contractualization must stop. Your worry is to make money. My worry is how I can protect the Filipino people. No compromises,” Duterte said, referring to businesses that hire workers for only five months then fire them to avoid hiring them permanently and paying them benefits.

Expecting resistance from them, Duterte said they would be compensated for additional expenditures on worker security with stability and security under his administration.

“They will have my protection. There will be no more corruption,” he said.

Duterte said he would form new labor-related agencies after he assumes office.

“I have plans for dividing [the DOLE]. There will be another department for overseas workers and another department for fisheries and aquatic resources,” he said.

“I have to ask Congress for an additional budget because I can’t create [those departments] without money,” he said.

Military officials on Monday said Bautista was a good choice for PSG chief.

Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said Bautista, commander of Joint Task Group Basilan and of the 104th Infantry Brigade, was a “true military professional with uncompromising values.”

“In more than three decades of seeing him work, I can say he is undoubtedly hardworking, self-sacrificing, a dedicated and committed serviceman,” Padilla said. With reports from Julie M. Aurelio in Manila and Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon