Ople’s daughter is labor exec

President Arroyo has officially appointed Susan Ople, daughter of the late foreign affairs secretary Blas Ople, as labor undersecretary in charge of the government’s reintegration program for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

The 41-year-old Ople took her oath of office before Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo at Malacañang yesterday in the presence of her widowed mother Susana, other family members, and Bulacan Rep. Wilfrido Villarama.

Sources earlier disclosed that Susan Ople was being considered for the administration’s senatorial ticket in place of her father, who died of a heart attack last Dec. 14.

Prior to her appointment as labor undersecretary, the young Ople was her father’s chief of staff in the Department of Foreign Affairs, where she pushed for administrative reforms and strengthened public diplomacy.

She worked longest in the Senate from 1987 to 2002 as a media relations officer, first for Sen. Ernesto Herrera and then for her father until he accepted the post of foreign affairs secretary in August 2002 when Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. resigned from the Cabinet.

She also co-founded the Citizens’ Drugwatch Foundation with Herrera.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the President, in appointing Ople, "wants us to speed up and strengthen the reintegration program for returning OFWs so they could use their earnings wisely while rediscovering ties with their families."

Ople is no stranger to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), where she practically grew up while her father was the labor minister during the Marcos administration.

"It’s like coming home," she said.

Ople, known to many as "Toots," recalled that spent a great deal of her childhood at the DOLE office while waiting for her father to finish his work at the end of the day.

"He is both my inspiration and guardian angel. In that sense, I am very lucky," she said.

Ople said she was waiting for her father last Dec. 14 to arrive in Bahrain where they were supposed to meet for the President’s state visit there, but he succumbed to a heart attack in Taiwan.

Ople holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where she received the Josephine Vernon Award for Excellence.

She also worked briefly for the International Labor Organization as the coordinator of its women workers’ education program.

Meanwhile, the President also designated retired Lt. Gen. Victor Mayo as officer-in-charge in the Office of the National Security Adviser after Roilo Golez resigned to run as congressman in the second congressional district of Parañaque City.

Golez told The STAR he formally turned over his post to Mayo, who was previously his deputy.

Mayo was the vice chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines when he retired. He belongs to the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1966 and is a classmate of former defense secretary Angelo Reyes, who now heads the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force.

Golez said Mayo’s expertise in counter-insurgency and security matters makes him fit to become the new national security adviser.