New DOLE chief orders performance audit

A performance audit will be conducted on all officers of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) under the direction of its newly-appointed secretary, Silvestre Bello III.

Bello, the 28th DOLE Secretary, said on Friday that the audit complies with President Rodrigo Duterte's initiative to cut the red tape in government transactions.

"Maraming nagrereklamo about the delay in the offices, our labor arbiters, our commissioners, maraming nagrereklamo. I am not validating that, but I will look into it,"  Bello said at the turnover ceremony at the DOLE main office.

The new Labor Secretary also aims to enforce Duterte's 72-hour policy, a new measure meant to eradicate bribery in government transactions.

"So that when a paper reaches your table, that paper should get out of the table in 72 hours. Because he (Duterte) said the longer it stays, the more 'kotong' is taken. Totoo iyan," Bello explained.

"So para mabawasan yung collection let us make it a policy in our department that the moment a paper reaches your table, the first thing you do is to see to it that within 72 hours papalabasin na natin iyon,"  he added.

Labor groups and employers will meet with Bello in the coming days to discuss the Duterte administration's "marching orders" to DOLE: stop contractualization and punish illegal recruiters.

"Ang marching orders ng ating presidente. We have to stop endo. We have to stop contractualization. We have to help each other. Both labor and management would have to talk how we could achieve this. Mahirap ito. We have to keep the balance," Bello said. —Rie Takumi/ALG, GMA News