President Rodrigo Duterte has renewed the appointment of broadcaster Ramon Tulfo as special envoy to China—despite demands by local labor groups for termination of his appointment after drawing flaks for his remarks on Filipino workers.
Documents released by the Palace on Tuesday revealed the President gave the go-ahead to Tulfo’s reappointment for another six-month term as his special envoy for public diplomacy to China.
Tulfo was first appointed to the post in October last year.
Local labor groups, however, called for his resignation for stating that international employers preferred the “hardworking” and “efficient” Chinese employees over Filipino workers.
Tulfo even maintained that he would not apologize to Filipino workers “for telling the truth” that they were basically lazy and a slowpoke.
Instead of objecting to his previous statement, Tulfo, who is also a newspaper columnist, should take his remarks as a wake-up call to step up with their work ethic, observers said.
Aside from Tulfo, the President also appointed Dennis Mapa as National Statistician, replacing Lisa Grace Bersales. Bersales’ term expired in April.
Mapa, a former dean of the University of the Philippines School of Statistics, will serve a five-year term as head of the Philippine Statistics Authority.