(Eagle News) — Administrative charges will be filed against the three labor officials who reportedly did not take action on the report in 2017 that Overseas Filipino Worker Joanna Demafelis was missing.
When asked during the Senate labor committee hearing on Wednesday if charges would be filed against labor attache Alejandro Padaid, assistant labor attache Lily Pearl Guerrero and welfare officer Sara Concepcion after they failed to act on the information given by Demafelis’ sister, Jessica, more than a year before the OFW was discovered in a freezer in Kuwait, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said, “Yes.”
According to Bello, he has already recalled all three officials from the Middle Eastern country.
Prior to this, he said he asked Concepcion to explain why the report was not acted upon in the first place.
He said he found her answer “unsatisfactory.”
In a radio interview, Bello had said the welfare officer who handled Demafelis’ case had cited too much work as her reason for not acting on the OFW sister’s information.
During the hearing, the president of the agency that recruited Demafelis was also identified.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency said Adam Briones will be invited as part of the agency’s investigation into Demafelis’ death.
