After being grilled during his confirmation hearing at the Commission on Appointments about complaints of some employees in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, (PEZA) whose services were allegedly unfairly terminated, placed on floating status, or demoted, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said PEZA’s day-to-day operations is not within his jurisdiction.
In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said while Pascual as DTI chief serves as chair of the PEZA Board under Republic Act No. 7916 or the Special Economic Zone Act, the law distinguishes between the functions of the PEZA Board and that of the PEZA Director General.
“The Board is mainly concerned with general policies on establishing and maintaining economic zones. The Board Chair is not directly involved in PEZA’s day-to-day operations, such as human resource management,” the Trade department said.
Thus, the DTI said Pascual was not aware of the pending complaint of four PEZA employees against the PEZA Management until the night before his December 6 scheduled hearing before the CA, when the CA Secretariat provided him a copy of the complaint filed with the Commission.
Surigao Del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel revealed at the Senate hearing on Tuesday that PEZA officer-in-charge Director General Tereso O. Panga has allegedly “terminated all contractuals, he has placed some of the permanent employees on floating status and more than that he has demoted some of the long-time employees of PEZA and this is contrary to our existing Civil Service rules and regulations.”
With this, the lawmaker said since Pascual is the head of DTI and PEZA is an attached agency of the Trade department, Pascual should be able to take care of the problem. Pimentel added that the CA cannot just take for granted the complaint as it is the mandate of the CA to “take cognizance of any complaint against the employee.”
Pascual, however, said that the matter of employees having complaints had only come to his attention at the time of the hearing when Pimentel brought it up.
On Wednesday, the DTI said Pascual, as PEZA Board Chair, ordered Panga to submit a written explanation on the complaint by PEZA employees. Further, the Trade chief will conduct an inquiry into the complaint.
Meanwhile, the Trade department said the assumption of Panga was based on Memorandum Circular No. 1,s. 2022, issued by the Office of the President.
“The circular declared vacant several positions in the government and mandated that the next-in-rank and most senior official fill up the vacant position as officer-in-charge (OIC),” said the DTI.
In addition, the agency said, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued DOJ Opinion No. 17, s. 2022 affirming that the assumption of Deputy Director General (DDG) Panga as PEZA OIC DG is legal and valid.
The CA hearing was suspended due to lack of material time.