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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Labor chief hits out at JBC decision

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Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday slammed the decision of the Judicial and Bar Council to disqualify him from the shortlist of candidates for Ombudsman due to a pending criminal case filed against him. 

He asked ANC why the JBC let him go through the process of being interviewed if a case had already been filed against him. 

Bello was interviewed by the JBC last month after he applied to replace retiring Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, but was dropped from the list earlier this week due to the syndicated estafa case against him.

 Under the JBC’s rules, an individual with a pending case before any court must be disqualified from being nominated to any judicial post or as Ombudsman or Deputy Ombudsman.

“If I had that case, why did you let me go through the process of being interviewed by you?” Bello told ANC. 

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He said the syndicated estafa case was filed in 2012 when he was allegedly chairman of the board of a certain corporation. But he claimed that Securities and Exchange Commission documents showed he was not even a member of the corporation’s board.

 Bello, who is also facing another case of extortion filed before the Presidential Anti-Corruption commission, said he had no issue with the members of the JBC who disqualified him from the list to replace Carpio-Morales.

He did not discount politics as the reason behind his exclusion from the JBC list.

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