Congressman blasts sale of OFW IDs

he anomalous sale of identification cards to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) should be reason enough for President Duterte to reject Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello’s bid to become the next Ombudsman, a partylist congressman said.

ACTS OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III said he will no longer present evidence of anomalies to stop Bello’s possible appointment but vowed to continue exposing alleged irregularities at DOLE, especially those affecting OFWs.

In a press conference, Bertiz also chided Assistant Secretary Kristian Ablan of the Presidential Communications Operations Office for “peddling fake news” when Ablan accused him of criticizing the Duterte government’s mishandling of OFW affairs.

Bertiz said that during a Malacañangsponsored conference for the preparation for Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), Ablan declared that the partylist lawmaker had complained that the Duterte administration has no programs to protect and improve the lives of OFWs.

Bertiz vehemently denied Ablan’s statement, saying that it was clearly distorted to put him in bad light.

“Mr. Ablan’s misrepresentation in the subsequent forum, which I did not attend, then gave Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello the excuse to attack me – malign my name and character,” he said.

Bello and Bertiz have been trading barbs over the ID issue after the lawmaker exposed the irregularity.

He blamed the labor chief for allowing the charging of for an OFW ID or iDOLE which is supposed to speed up the processing of documentation for OFWs.

Bertiz said those behind the sale of the IDs could reap at least million if they are not stopped.

He said no fee should have been collected because the ID materials were donated to government by ACTS-OFW in appreciation of Duterte’s accomplishments for Filipino workers abroad.

Bertiz said the fee for iDOLE may have prevented OFWs from securing the cards, making its issuance “absolutely useless as if it does not exist.”

In a radio interview, Bello said the issuance of iDOLE has been stopped because of alleged irregularities.

He said he ordered the program scrapped after he was offered money to support it.

“We have to scrap it until we can find a system that will provide an IDOLE card to our OFWs at no expense to the government and especially at no expense to the OFW,” Bello said.