The Philippine Online Chronicles

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Carlos Cao Jr. is supposed to leave his job tomorrow but has yet to receive official word on his removal.

“Please give me some dignity,” Cao said after days of waiting for papers to follow the verbal order informing him of his ouster.

"I have not received any official directives from the Office of the President or even from the higher-ups at DOLE.  I don’t really know the standard operating procedure but I hope they would send me something like a directive. I think I deserve it for my own dignity. It is the least that I can ask for," Cao said.

Cao denied that he was replaced because of poor performance or for not being in control of his people.

He said it was probably the cancellation of nearly 300 recruitment agency permits because of labor abuses that had probably angered others.

He explained that he had followed President Benigno Aquino III’s directive to “care” for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

According to him, it was during his watch that the processing of papers had zero backlog (for land-based workers).

“When I came here, the POEA lobby was like a talipapa (market place). Now it’s like the lobby of a hotel,” Cao said, pointing out that air-conditioning units, water dispensers and TV sets have been installed.

“These are little things but these are what our workers appreciate. I think I’m the only POEA chief who has not been picketed by our workers. Yung iba nirarally araw-araw (Others were the target of daily protest rallies),” Cao said.

Migrant support

In fact, Cao had recently found an ally in the militant group Migrante.

Migrante spokesperson John Leonard Monterona called on the President to rethink the sacking of Cao, adding that it was a reflection of a power struggle between the new and old “top labor honchos” under PNoy.

“In fairness to atty. Cao, he has done a good job instituting bureaucratic reforms that streamlined the procedure of services to OFW stakeholders…and in the combat against illegal recruitment activities, among other things,” Monterona said.

Monterona attested to the fact that there is now a “more rationalized process” in obtaining an overseas employment certificate which took him just 20 to 30 minutes.

“(He) prevented large-scale human smuggling and illegal trafficking activity allegedly by some corrupt POEA officials in cahoots with  illegal recruiters,” he added.

Already has replacement

Earlier reports said Labor Undersecretary Hans Cacdac had already taken oath before Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz weeks ago as replacement of Cao.

Both Cacdac and Baldoz refused to comment on Cao’s departure.

Cacdac is an old POEA official who had served as deputy administrator in charge of licensing and adjudication from 2006 to 2010. He was appointed as undersecretary for labor relations in September 2010 and is now handling the still volatile labor row at the Philippine Airlines.

He was also the director of the Bureau of Labor Relations for a time and was executive director of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board.