Peso Lapu-Lapu City chief denies raps

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — The head of the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) of Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu province has denied the allegations against her in relation to the allegedly illegal language skills training held for overseas jobs applicants from Negros Oriental.

Grace Jameo, chief of PESO Lapu-Lapu City, instead turned the tables on her PESO-Negros Oriental counterpart, Ramon Benedicto.

Jess Cañete, special investigator of the Commission on Human Rights in the province, said his office had received early this week the counter-affidavit of Jameo, but he was out-of-town at the time, thus he was only able to read it on Thursday.

The CHR official however did not disclose the contents of Jameo’s counter affidavit, which was just in a letter form but administered by a lawyer.

Jameo said Benedicto must be made to answer instead the accusations and other charges hurled against her. She also questioned the authority of the CHR in the investigation, saying the Department of Labor and Employment instead should be the government agency investigating the allegations.

These allegations stemmed from complaints by about 500 overseas job applicants who last year took the Korean language skills training in two separate batches, after Jameo told them during an orientation that the training was a pre-requisite to employment in South Korea.

The applicants, who later discovered there were no overseas jobs awaiting them, claimed they spent close to P9,000 each in training fees and a learning module paid to a company that Cañete said appeared to be not authorized by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration or the Technical Education Skills Development Authority.

The complainants later sought the assistance of the CHR to recover their money, amounting to about P4-million, as well as to haul in court those responsible for the alleged malpractice.

Cañete said Benedicto already received a copy of Jameo’s counter-affidavit and has asked the PESO Negros Oriental head to submit his reply, based on Jameo’s statements, within the week.  (FREEMAN)