A Filipino migrant group called for the removal of ACTS OFW party-list Representative John Bertiz III from office and accused the lawmaker of being “a fake OFW representative and habitual abuser of authority.”
Dolores Balladares-Pelaez, chair of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong or “UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK,” recalled an experience with Bertiz dating back to January 2017 when the lawmaker OFW crashed a scheduled important dialogue between the migrant group and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod.
Balladares-Pelaez said that the Maglungsod flew all the way to Hong Kong to meet them and discuss the migrant group’s demands particularly the abolition of the overseas employment certificate (OEC).
“To our surprise, Rep. Bertiz also came to the said dialogue uninvited, spoke for almost 20 minutes and lectured us on the need for the OEC and that only his proposed “OFW ID” can replace the OEC,” Balladares-Pelaez said.
Balladares-Pelaez said that a commotion between UNIFIL-MIGRANTE secretary General Eman Villanueva and Bertiz when the former politely asked the latter to not take much of their time with Maglungsod.
During the “shouting match” between the two, Bertiz accused Villanueva of being an undocumented migrant.
“We were all shocked when he shouted at Eman and falsely accused him of being an undocumented migrant after Eman exposed him as a recruitment agency owner,” Balladares-Pelaez said.
Balladares-Pelaez then said that Bertiz only represents recruitment agencies and not OFWs and called for the House of Representatives to take necessary action, particularly Bertiz’ expulsion from the Congress, after his recent controversies.
“He is not worthy to represent our sector in Congress. He is only representing himself and his kind – recruitment agencies. He is a power tripper and he thinks he can get away with it because of his closeness to Philippine Pres. Duterte and his personal assistant Sec. Bong Go,” Balladares-Pelaez stressed.
“ACTS-OFW representative Aniceto ‘John’ D. Bertiz III is not even an OFW. He is in fact an owner of one of Philippines’ biggest recruitment agencies. He is arrogant and disrespectful even to the people he claims to represent. He is a habitual abuser of authority,” she added.
On Sunday, September 30, a Facebook page posted the CCTV video of the incident and accused Bertiz of skipping security measures at the airport by refusing to remove his shoes and harassing an airport staff by shoving his ID to the screening officer’s face.
The incident allegedly happened at NAIA Terminal 2 on Saturday, September 29, where “security condition level 2” was imposed requiring all employees and passengers to remove their shoes for checking as a security measure.
After supposedly refusing to remove his shoes, the video shows Bertiz shoving his ID to the airport staff’s face and forcibly taking the ID of the latter.
