Yesterday, Facebook posts that have been confirmed to be those of former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman went viral on the internet.

In the posts, ex-secretary Soliman can be read to be expressing concern over what she said were the unfair termination of DSWD memorandum of agreement (MOA) employees  by the “current administration”.

Asked for a comment by members of the media, incumbent DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said that she would much rather focus on her work and perform her responsibilities to ensure prompt and compassionate service to the poor in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s thrust of serving the people.

“I will not be derailed by unfounded criticisms and the unwelcome interference from former DSWD senior officials.  From the beginning what I have done is to focus on the myriad tasks that need to be accomplished to help ensure that the DSWD is more capable of performing its mandate as the government’s main welfare agency.  The problems that we continue to unearth and that are being reported to us not only by various ranking officials, rank and file employees, and more importantly beneficiaries and ordinary citizens have to be addressed. The hiring and termination of DSWD personnel are in line with existing guidelines and the terms of contracts of individual staff,” she said.

Sec. Taguiwalo said, on the other hand, that as the Philippine representative to the ministers’ council of Pillar 3 of ASEAN, the Socio- Cultural Community, she is happy to witness the signing by the ASEAN heads of state of the agreement titled ASEAN Declaration on One ASEAN One Response: ASEAN Responding to Disasters as One in the Region and Outside the Region.

“We believe that the signing of the ASEAN Declaration on One ASEAN One Response: ASEAN Responding to Disasters as One in the Region and Outside the Region is a crucial step in unifying our efforts in addressing our disaster-related challenges. We support the importance of harnessing our collective strengths and responding as One ASEAN to address disasters inside and outside the region more effectively. The Philippines will continue to be committed to this endeavor,” she said.

Sec. Taguiwalo is among the cabinet officials of Pres. Duterte currently in Laos to attend the ASEAN Summit. The Philippines will chair the ASEAN meetings in 2017 which is the 50th anniversary of the regional organization.###