Tulfo, Bautista meet for DSWD transition

MANILA, Philippines — Incoming Department of Social Welfare and Development secretary Erwin Tulfo and outgoing Secretary Rolando Joselito Bautista have met for the first time after their acrimonious public spat three years ago, with the meeting serving as a warm and cordial encounter in time for the impending change of administration.

Tulfo took the meeting as an opportunity to apologize for the second time – this time, face-to-face – to Bautista who, according to incoming DSWD undersecretary for operations Jerico Javier, had graciously accepted and had pledged to work closely in the next two weeks with Tulfo’s team for the smooth transfer of leadership in the agency.

Bautista had also ordered the DSWD’s officials to work with Tulfo’s incoming team for briefings and discussions on the agency’s ongoing, past and planned projects and programs for proper turnover.

In 2019, Tulfo was embroiled in a public furor with Bautista when the latter took offense at an expletive-spiced rant that Tulfo made about Bautista’s inaccessibility and unavailability for an interview.

In his media rant during a broadcast, Tulfo threatened to slap Bautista and to shove his face into the toilet bowl should they cross paths, all because the former commanding general of the Philippine Army failed to grant the former his request for a phone patch interview in his radio show.

The furor even led to Bautista’s fellow retired and active police and military officials and officers to threaten to withdraw support and assistance to the whole Tulfo family.

Following the incident, Tulfo and his two media personality-siblings lost their police security escorts.

The Philippine National Police also ordered Tulfo to surrender his guns, saying his license to own and possess firearms had already expired.

Bautista belongs to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Sandiwa Class of 1985. A seasoned military man, he was also the overall ground commander when terrorists attacked Marawi City in 2017. – Cecille Suerte Felipe