Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Sec. Teodoro Locsin Jr. has tasked USec. Brigido Dulay with finding the Palaweño overseas worker who has been reported missing since last year by his relatives.
Locsin instructed Dulay on April 15 via Twitter to act “as soon as possible” on the case of overseas worker Joel Tambal, a resident of Barangay Binga in San Vicente municipality who was hired to work as a fisherman in Korea but ended up on board a Chinese vessel.
“Do it same way we’ve done it, especially in pandemic: no excuses, no laziness, no bureaucratic shit; only instant action and concrete results,” he said.
Dulay, on the other hand, reported that they have already located the Singaporean owner of the vessel Tambal boarded.
“We’ve already traced the Singaporean vessel owner of the missing OFW,” Dulay said.
Maria Elizabeth Embry, a retired nurse and anti-human trafficking advocate who retweeted Palawan News’ story on Tambal on April 14, tagged Locsin in a Twitter post, prompting him to make the order.
Tambal, 30, was recruited in Binga by a representative of Able Maritime Seafarers, Inc. (AMSI), a company that had been suspended by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) from recruiting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Tambal’s sister, Jayrose Gallardo, claimed they last spoke with him in December 2021 and haven’t heard from him since. She said that AMSI is no longer responding to their inquiries and that its representative has already denied recruiting her brother.
When informed of the DFA’s move, Jayrose expressed gratitude for the assistance being provided in locating her brother.
“Ang masasabi ko lang po muna salamat ng marami sa inyo,” Jayrose told Palawan News on Monday.
