Thursday, March 06, 2008

Political Appointees in the DFA

Hat-tip to Arbet for this news item. So the Philippines could lose its claim on Spratlys because the DFA is too slow to act? Or, the DFA has been infiltrated by vested interests? Its really no surprise given that half of our embassies abroad are manned by "political appointees," not career diplomats .

A former ambassador lists them gleefully in his opinion column:
Following are the present political appointees, some of whom have been in their posts for more than six years:

Masaranga Umpa (Abuja); Rigoberto Tiglao (Athens); Alejandro del Rosario (Budapest); Ernesto de Leon (Canberra); Vidal Querol (Jakarta); Ramoncito Marino (Koror); Edgardo Espiritu (London); Joseph Bernardo (Madrid); Antonio Lagdameo (Mexico); Acmad Omar (Muscat); Jose Brillantes (Ottawa); Hermoso Belarmino (Port Moresby); Carmelita Salas (Prague); Phillippe Lhuillier (Rome); Consuelo Puyat Reyes (Santiago); Bienvenido Tejano (Wellington); and Noel Cabrera (Yangon).

Noe Wong is enroute to a Southeast Asian country, while Cristina Ponce-Enrile has reportedly been appointed to go to the Holy See.

Bucharest and New Delhi are vacant. I wouldn't be surprised if they too are filled with political carpetbaggers.

I've met our ambassador here. Interestingly, he was an officer in the armed forces.

1 comment:

The Nashman said...

so is celine lopez's mom going to be ambassador to italy too?

given that she's not a career diplomat, it's a disgrace. (and does she even speak Dante's language?)

ambassador to the vatican???? what a joke! do we even need that?? the mall of asia is bigger than the vatican. why a separate ambassador?? why not put that under the jurisdiction of the ambassador to rome????