Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Dante Liban yesterday said he has ordered TESDA officials to study the possibility of turning over to the private sector the testing and evaluation of so-called overseas performing artists (OPAs).
"The OPAs are not under the mandate of TESDA," Liban said. "Just like seafarers, I think they are better off if they are given to the private sector to be tested and evaluated."
Liban was appointed TESDA director general by President Arroyo last year and tasked to institute reforms in the agency.
The former Quezon City congressman was one of the principal authors of the law that created TESDA and, thus, knows the major role it plays in the government’s mission to provide employment for the people — especially the underprivileged.
However, Liban said he discovered that, over the years, TESDA has become a haven for syndicates preying on hapless girls and boys who dream of greener pastures abroad.
These syndicates, Liban said, are now having a hard time operating under his administration of the agency, hence they have come up with malicious accusations against him.
Liban recently filed two P50-million libel suits against the leaders of a group of recruitment agencies and testing centers and two officials of the TESDA employees union.
Liban filed libel charges before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against the Philippine Association of Recruitment Agencies Deploying Artists (PARADA) president Lorenzo Lagomez and Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME) president Alfredo Palmiery.
Lagomez and Palmiery accused Liban of participating in the anomalous sale of Artists Record Books (ARBs) at prices ranging between P20,000 and P40,000 each and of allowing a "payola" system to be set up between private recruitment agencies seeking favors from TESDA.
The ARBs, Lagomez and Palmiery said, were allegedly sold in exchange for the would-be OPAs’ exemption from actual auditions prior to deployment. They also alleged that a syndicate within TESDA is behind the anomalies in the agency and they called for Liban’s resignation because of the rampant anomalies under his administration.
"These people are being used by the syndicates. I pity them, but I have to save my name and TESDA – that’s why I filed charges against them," Liban said. The accusations they leveled against him, he added, are "absolutely false, without any lawful and factual basis."
Also facing P50-million libel suits filed against them by Liban are Samahang Malaya at Magkaisang Kawani ng TESDA president Annie Geron and TESDA Association of Concerned Employees Union president Sonia Lipio.
Geron and Lipio accused Liban of involvement in the TESDA anomalies in a news item published in the tabloid Tempo, whose reporter Jemma Sabate was also charged with libel in connection with the article.
"ARBs are not being sold and neither is there any kind of payola between TESDA officials and testing center owners," Liban said.
Meanwhile, Palmiery, Lagomez, OPAs and leaders of the recruitment industry led a huge rally at the Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge in Manila yesterday seeking Liban’s resignation.
Garbed in black to dramatize their concern over what they called irregularities in TESDA, Palmiery and Lagomez asked Mrs. Arroyo to "overhaul" the TESDA leadership.
Former movie star and TESDA testing officer Maggie dela Riva faulted the TESDA leadership for implementing a "wrong system" in the issuance of ARBs, the key to obtaining Japanese working visas, and in the assessment of entertainers applying for ARBs.
According to Lagomez, "TESDA should endeavor to maximize the employment of entertainers and other workers abroad instead of gloating over a very low placement record. This is not supporting the Arroyo administration’s employment program."