The Timor-Leste government may apply disciplinary action to public officials doing face-to-face work who refuse to take the vaccine, while maintaining that vaccination against covid-19 is not mandatory.

Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Fidelis Magalhães admitted the government’s tough stance, explaining that the vaccine was not mandatory — but that it was required of public officials who have to work in person.

“A person who rejects the vaccine cannot be present at the workplace,” he said.

“If you are a civil servant who refuses and cannot be present when you are asked to be present, this is disobedience through failure to fulfill your duty,” the official told Lusa.

“There is disciplinary action for not going to work, for not showing up at work, in accordance with the law and the regulations,” he said.

A government resolution of May 19 – which aims to intensify the vaccination rollout in the country – already determines that employees in face-to-face work must have partial or complete vaccination.

This text defines “partial or complete vaccination as a relevant criterion to be adopted by the public administration in determining the employees, agents and workers in the provision of face-to-face work”.

The same text – which sets a target of 5000 daily inoculations – also guides all government departments “towards approving the rules and procedures necessary to ensure compliance with the covid-19 preventive measures in force, in the internal functioning of services and in public service”.

Vaccine not mandatory
In no case, however, is the vaccine mandatory or if any sanctions are determined for refusing to take it.

“It is a delicate situation between mandatory vaccination and the need to increase the number of people vaccinated,” Magalhães said.

“The government is the highest body of public administration. As the highest body, it has a duty to guarantee the safety of its own employees — and the maximum safety is that workers are not infected with the virus.”

Tatoli News reports that Timor-Leste health authorities registered 231 covid-19 cases yesterday, 215 in Dili, and 16 in other municipalities. Officials said 158 people had recovered.

Antonio Sampaio is the bureau chief of Lusa News Agency in Dili. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The trial of a former US priest accused of child abuse in Timor-Leste due to resume tomorrow at the Oecusse Court has been postponed until May 24, according to judicial sources.

The president of the Court of Appeal, Deolindo dos Santos, confirmed the postponement to Lusa news agency, explaining that he was asked by the lawyers for the defendant, Richard Daschbach. He was concerned with the current conditions due to the covid-19 sanitary lockdown in the Timorese capital.

The judge explained that the rules of the lockdown obliged anyone who has to travel to present negative covid-19 tests, and that the conduct of the trial required the trip to the Oecusse enclave of one of the judges hearing the case, the translator, the lawyers of defence and the defendant, members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and other parties involved.

“An application was made for the defendant’s defence to the Oecusse Court, which notified the Public Ministry to respond. The court received this response and issued an order to postpone it until May 24,” said dos Santos.

Daschbach, who is under house arrest in Dili, began trial in February for crimes of child abuse, child pornography and domestic violence.

The trial, which is closed to the public, had two sessions scheduled on March 22 and 23.

Daschbach was expelled from the Congregation of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in East Timor and from the priesthood by the Vatican for the “committed and admitted abuse of minors” in an orphanage in the country, Topu Honis.

“SVD Timor-Leste wants to emphatically reiterate that based on the heinous crime committed and admitted of child abuse at the Topu Honis orphanage, Mr Richard Daschbach was expelled, after an ecclesiastical criminal process, from the religious and clerical state by the Congregation for Doctrine da Fé, in the Vatican, on November 6, 2018,” said a recent communiqué of the organisation.

Deolindo dos Santos told Lusa that given the evolution of the cases of covid-19 and with sanitary fences in effect, the judiciary was working to “enable judgments to take place at a distance” by video conferencing.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

The former president of of Timor-Leste’s public television network says he has been sacked for political reasons.

Gil da Costa was removed this month from the post of chairperson of the board of directors of Timor-Leste Radio and Television (RTTL) following an audit undertaken by the government – and he had no knowledge of the result.

He has told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that his removal from office – which he first learned about on the news – was a political decision following the audit that was led by his successor.

Ousted: Gil da Costa found out about his sacking through the news media. Image: RTTL

“I heard from the news that I had been ousted. They did not even talk to me before or about any problem that existed,” Gil da Costa told Lusa yesterday.

Da Costa alleged that he was removed after the audit whose results he never knew without any prior information from the government and without even having the opportunity to be heard or give any explanation.

“It was definitely a political decision”, considering it “serious” the fact that his removal happened after the audit mandated by the Secretary of State for the Media (SECOMS), Merício dos Reis, and conducted in October by Francisco da Silva who became his successor and took office today.

“The appointment of my successor is political. They use alleged mismanagement and alleged irregularities to fire me, but whoever replaced me was the person who led the audit process,” Da Costa said.

Audit credibility
“And I do not even know if the audit has credibility. I have not even seen the results yet.”

Gil da Costa also also said he had acted directly to stop attempts at political interference in the newsroom, a “common” practice in the past and attempts were made to do this during his tenure at RTTL.

“There have been several attempts at political interference on me and directly on journalists to try to influence editorial content,” he said.

“As head of RTTL I always insisted that I wanted it to be an independent institution without political interference. And I’ve tried to do this. And there was a lot of political interference,” he said.

The sacking decision was made known to the public and himself in a short notice from the government at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on January 9, which did not even mention his name, Lusa reports.

Appointed: Francisco da Silva took office today. Image: RTTL

“The government approved the proposal for a Government Resolution on the dismissal of the current chairperson of the board of directors of Timor-Leste Radio and Television, and the appointment of the new chairperson of the board of directors of Timor-Leste Radio and Television, EP , Francisco da Silva on the proposal of the Secretary of State for the Media, Merício dos Reis,” the statement said.

Despite several attempts, Lusa was not able to obtain a comment from Secretary dos Reis.

Fretilin appointment
Gil da Costa was appointed to the position of RTTL president by a government resolution approved on January 25, 2018, replacing Milena Abrantes, who ended her four-year term that same month.

Asked whether his nomination – by the previous Fretilin-led minority government – had been political and therefore he had now been dismissed, Gil da Costa rejected this suggestion, claiming that he had accumulated “great professional experience” and fought to avoid “political interference”.

“I worked for many years with international agencies. And I may have been appointed by the Fretilin government but I did not obey Fretlin. The RTTL is from the state, not from the government. It is an institution of the state, not the government,” he said.

To avoid delays in wages, “I made the decision to use RTTL’s own revenue in advertising”.

“RTTL has been out of money for six months. And I don’t understand why,” he said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz