Former CA justice assumes DOLE post

FORMER Court of Appeals Associate Justice Arturo Brion today takes over the post of labor and employment chief.

Brion has replaced outgoing secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas who will move to the Development Bank of the Philippines as chair. Sto. Tomas has served as Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) since March 2001.

Sto. Tomas is considered as one of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s most loyal officials. At the height of the ‘Hello, Garci’ controversy, Sto. Tomas refused to join the Hyatt 10, a group of Cabinet officials who resigned their posts and called on the President to resign.

Last May, Sto. Tomas announced her resignation as DOLE chief, saying the job was “too stressful.”

“I am taking over [from] a successful labor secretary and I would like to maintain her legacy of peaceful labor and management relations to keep the number of strikes to a minimum,” Brion told the Inquirer on June 18, when Arroyo first announced that he was being tapped to replace Sto. Tomas.

Brion is a senior member of the 15th division of the CA. Prior to his appointment to the Appellate Court in June 2003, he was undersecretary for DOLE and later, for the Department of Foreign Affairs.

He first joined DOLE in 1982 as executive director of the Institute for Labor and Manpower Studies, the department’s think tank. He later became deputy minister of labor, after serving as Assemblyman of Laguna in the Batasang Pambansa.

In March 2001, he was named Undersecretary for Labor Relations.

He was senior partner in the Natividad, Delos Reyes, Maambong & Brion Law Office and later joined the Siguion Reyna, Montecillo & Ongsiako Law Offices.

He topped the Bar examinations in 1974 and graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University where he earned his Bachelor of Laws degree.

Visit PCIJ’s i-site for a full profile of Brion.