FORMER party-list representative Aniceto dela Rosa Bertiz III, who was investigated by the House in 2018 for flouting security rules at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, has been appointed by President Duterte as deputy director-general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Bertiz replaced Gladys Rosales, who succumbed to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in April, according to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
“We hope that everyone would support DDG Bertiz as he begins his new assignment in this extraordinary time,” Roque said.
He said Bertiz, the former representative of ACTS OFW Party-list, would be helpful in the ongoing repatriation of thousands of overseas Filipino workers to the country and would have a “huge task to fulfill, which is, to provide these returning Filipinos quality-assured and inclusive technical education and skills development, as envisioned by TESDA”.
Bertiz took his oath of office on Monday morning before TESDA Director-General Secretary Isidro “Sid” Lapeña.
In a statement, he thanked the President for his appointment, adding that he is “humbled” by his new task of helping the returning migrant workers though TESDA.
“TESDA is already working doubly hard to deliver the highly responsive scholarship programs needed, including via distance learning, so that our displaced workers may acquire new proficiencies for their successful economic reintegration,” Bertiz said.
He said TESDA would also help in the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program by empowering the beneficiaries with a “wide range of high-value competencies needed for them to obtain gainful self-employment as well as employment opportunities in their home provinces.”
In 2018, he reportedly harassed an airport officer who asked him to take off his shoes during a routine airport inspection. He later apologized, claiming that he has his “period,” and that he was willing to face investigations.