Villanueva prods Duterte govt to cut red tape for job seekers

SEN. Joel Villanueva objected over the weekend against the additional imposition on workers to first get clearance from the Philippine National Police (PNP) before they can be attended to transact business with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Villanueva likened it to “a gate pass,” adding that he found “incredulous” the prior PNP clearance requirement, even as he warned it was tantamount to a defiance of the President’s directive to reduce red tape in government transactions.

“It was not only incredulous but ran counter to Duterte’s instruction to government offices to cut red tape,” the Senator noted. He recalled that “what the President has ordered and what the people want is less red tape and not more of it. What the PNP is proposing goes against this.”

Villanueva raised the issue following questions aired by Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra over the proposal of PNP Chief Gen. Debold M. Sinas to Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III that “only those with police clearance should be served” by the labor department.

In a statement last Sunday, the Senator conveyed concerns that requiring workers to get police clearance for DOLE transactions imposes “another layer of red tape that delays the prompt delivery of service.”

Villanueva wondered: “Why should a jobless OFW [overseas Filipino worker] wanting to get financial help from DOLE be required to detour to a police station? To me that is an unnecessary, costly and time-consuming stopover.” He affirmed that “a police permit is not needed to get help from DOLE,” reminding that “the DOLE’S mandate is to be a ‘help center’ for the working man.”

“It is not an apprehension place for the police where they can set up a dragnet for people who have unfinished business with authorities,” the Senator stressed, suggesting that “there are other, better ways of apprehending people in trouble with the law.

“You go after them and not wait for them to walk into the precinct,” he added.

Villa nu eva observed that“workers in distress” will be dissuaded from seeking do le assistance“if a police permit” is first required.

“It’s not because they have records, but because of the hassle, fatigue, time and money they will spend.”

Moreover, the senator observed that “promdi” employees, or those from the provinces who are in Metro Manila temporarily to follow up their papers with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Employees’ Compensation Commission, “may not be familiar with how to secure a police clearance.”