Labor attaché in Los Angeles appeals recall over flood control projects
The country’s labor attaché in Los Angeles, California, has asked the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to reconsider her recall to Manila after her family’s business came up as having alleged ties with a contractor of flood control works in Bulacan.
But Migrant Workers chief Hans Cacdac said on Friday that he rejected labor attaché Macy Monique Maglanque’s motion for reconsideration, noting that the recall order he issued last week against the diplomat stands.
“As far as we know, she is on her way back … We will not give her much time,” Cacdac told a virtual news conference. “She filed the motion for reconsideration, but we denied it outright.”
He said Maglanque should arrive in Manila in the next few days after the motion she filed early this week was thumbed down. Details of the labor attaché’s appeal, however, could not be disclosed to the media.
Due in a few days
On Sept. 12, the DMW handed a recall order against Maglanque from her Los Angeles post so she could attend the investigations into the ghost contracts or substandard projects for flood control should she be called for her cooperation.
Cacdac clarified that the order for Maglanque to return home does not come with any punishment as the DMW was merely cooperating with the various inquiries into the matter.
The name of the labor attaché was mentioned in the privilege speech by Sen. Panfilo Lacson last week, which linked the Maglanque family to a contracting firm with projects in Bulacan.
Maglanque herself was found to be the president of MBB Global Properties Corp., a real estate firm whose other controversial executives include Fatima Gay Dela Cruz, who is a daughter of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan; as well as Sunshine Bernardo, daughter of DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.
The senator also revealed that the diplomat’s father, Mayor Rene Maglanque of Candaba, Pampanga, was the former president of Globalcrete Builders—a company that secured P2.195 billion worth of flood control projects from 2018 to 2024.
