Former lawmaker appointed TESDA deputy chief

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has appointed former party-list congressman John Bertiz III, who used to represent the interests of the country’s 10 million overseas Filipino workers, as deputy director-general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

“We are grateful for the trust bestowed by the President,” he said after taking his oath before TESDA director-general Isidro Lapeña, who administered the oath of office for the former lawmaker.

Bertiz will be taking over the post left vacant by Gladys Fua Rosales, who died last April due to the coronavirus disease 2019.

“We are humbled by the task before us at TESDA under Secretary Lapeña’s leadership, considering the huge number of Filipinos, including returning migrant workers, separated from their jobs on account of the COVID-19 global pandemic,” he said.

Bertiz served as party-list congressman, representing ACTS-OFW, from 2016 to 2019.

In a statement, he said TESDA is exerting all efforts to deliver more highly responsive scholarship programs through online or distance learning that are needed by displaced OFWs so that they may acquire a new set of skills.

He said the agency also supports the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program” of Sen. Bong Go.

“In support of the Balik Probinsya Program, we are committed to empowering dislocated workers with a wide range of high-value competencies needed for them to obtain gainful self-employment opportunities in their home provinces,” Bertiz said.

“In the case of our workers returning from abroad, around 87 percent of them actually come from cities and municipalities outside the National Capital Region,” he added.

In late 2018, Bertiz figured in a viral video where he bullied a lowly employee of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 after he was advised to remove his shoes before he was to go through the x-ray scanner. He has since apologized for the incident.

He drew flak on social media after he was caught on video (CCTV) snatching the ID of an airport screener who questioned him about his refusal to remove his shoes, a security protocol, at NAIA Terminal 2.

At Malacañnag, presidential spokesman Harry Roque yesterday said Bertiz is expected to perform a “huge task” as deputy director-general of the agency.

“With the repatriation of thousands of overseas Filipino workers to the country, Mr. Bertiz has a huge task to fulfill, which is, to provide these returning Filipinos quality-assured and inclusive technical education and skills development, as envisioned by TESDA,” Roque said.

“We hope that everyone would support DDG Bertiz as he begins his new assignment in this extraordinary time,” he added. Alexis Romero