Bello cancels ‘midnight deal’ in HK

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello. PHOTO BY DEXTER CABALZA

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has ordered the cancellation of what he called a “midnight deal” entered into by a recalled labor official in Hong Kong and a supplier of an online system used for the reporting and processing of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the autonomous Chinese territory.

The decision came after a fact-finding team presented the findings of its probe on alleged irregularities in the procurement of database service for OFWs at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo).

Bello also ordered a formal probe of former Hong Kong Labor Attaché Jalilo de la Torre to determine if he had any administrative and criminal liability.

Last month, Bello constituted a fact-finding team to look into issues involving Polo officials and systems providers Employeasy Limited and Polaris Tools in Hong Kong.—Tina G. Santos