A public fundraiser is being held today to raise funds to help bring back a former charge d’affairs of Palau in the Philippines Ngerikl Baules and his wife Baulbei Baules and their four kids from the Philippines, which according to news report from Tia Belau have been terminated by the “Palau government for undisclosed reasons and have not been repatriated.” The report said that the couples have worked for many years in the Palau embassy and medical house in the Philippines.
In an interview, Minister Faustina Rehuher-Marugg shed some light on the matter. “The contract was never terminated. Ngerikl Baules was an employee for the Ministry of State. So before anything happens we need to talk.” According Minister Marugg, Baules was called to Palau in 2018 where he was told to work at the Ministry of State in Palau because they could no longer employ him in the Palau Embassy in Manila.
Despite the instructions from the Ministry of State, Baules did not really communicate well with them and until now he did not specify to them exactly when he would be coming back to Palau. The Ministry of State had no choice, according to Minister Marugg, but to take matters into their own hands and follow procedures which led to his termination.
Additionally, Minister Faustina countered claims that Ngerikl was abandoned saying that he was repatriated. She went on to say that “We cannot just dismiss our people overseas. We have to look after each other whether you’re here or overseas. So Ministry of State followed procedures in the personnel regulations in the government that we need to follow when we dismiss a person. So there is no way you can dismiss a person for no reason. There is a reason why you dismiss somebody and you have to name those and we have those in our files.” Reasons for termination were not provided to Island Times.
Baulbei Baules, Ngerikl’s wife is an employee of the Ministry of Health and Ministry of State would not comment about her. The fundraising event is to be held today, December 10 from 1pm to 5pm located at TMC parking lot on Lebuu Street in Dngeronger, Koror. (Telbakes Yano)