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MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE) The 26 political ambassadors appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should come home by June 30, when their appointments shall have expired, a career diplomat said Thursday.
Ambassador Victoria Bataclan, president of the Union of Foreign Service Officers, asked the political ambassadors to voluntarily step down regardless of the Palace order telling political ambassadors to ?stay put? in their posts. ?With all due respect, time?s up,? she said.
?Respectfully, we request our colleagues to join us and implement the Constitution and the law. All of us must follow the rule of law,? she said.
Following Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza?s June 7 order, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo deferred his April 28 order reminding the political ambassadors to return to the home office as their assignment is about to expire.
Bataclan, former Philippine ambassador to Sweden and now head of the Department of Foreign Affairs? Asean office, said the orders (Malacanang?s and even Romulo?s later instructions of deferment) were ?useless? as the outgoing president?s appointing authority expires on June 30. This was her response to INQUIRER.net?s question if the Palace order was illegal.
She said that ?by operation of law,? these representatives of the outgoing appointing authority (Arroyo) stop being ambassadors.
DFA spokesman, lawyer Ed Malaya, seemed to agree with Bataclan. ?The deferment of the recall orders for political ambassadors is made ?subject to pertinent laws and further instructions of the appointing authority,?? he said in a text message.
?The recall orders are therefore deferred, without necessarily changing the nature of the appointments of the political ambassadors which are co-terminus with their appointing authority. This will be so unless the President-elect directs otherwise upon his assumption to office,? he added.
At the same time, there will be no power vacuums in the embassies as charge d?affaires are on hand to ?automatically? take over the functions of the ambassadors when they leave, Bataclan said.
The Palace order, as well as the subsequent Romulo order, is creating confusion in the 101 Philippine foreign offices worldwide, she said.
?Nagugulo ang mga tao [The people are confused]. The order can be misinterpreted by those who are not familiar with our system?We should avoid the situation where [the political ambassador] demands for his salary and the finance/administrative officer is placed in a difficult situation,? she said.
?We don?t want that situation,? she added.
?There is boiling emotions among the career officers who are almost in unbelief that this could happen. This has never happened before,? said one Filipino diplomat, who added that the order may diminish the Philippine diplomatic corps? credibility in the international community.
?We should protect the credibility of our diplomacy. [The Palace order] has a huge impact in foreign capitals,? he said.
The Palace order came after acting justice secretary Alberto Agra came out with a legal opinion saying that government officials in charge with payment of salaries and other compensations could stay on a holdover position until his or her replacement was named.
Bataclan also argued against Agra?s legal opinion.
In his Assignment Order 207-10 dated 28 April 2010, Romulo ordered the recall of: Ma. Consuelo Puyat-Reyes (Santiago); Acmad Omar (Muscat); Antonio Villamor (Riyadh); Generoso Senga (Tehran); Francisco Ortigas III (Mexico); Jose Brillantes (Ottawa); Ernesto De Leon (Canberra); Orlando Mercado (ASEAN-Jakarta);
Vidal Querol (Jakarta); Ramoncito Marino (Koror); Francisco Benedicto (Beijing); Noe Wong (Phnom Penh); Shirley Ho-Vicario (Port Moresby); Domingo Siazon, Jr. (Tokyo); Bienvenido Tejano (Wellington); Rigoberto Tiglao (Athens); Delia Albert (Berlin); Alejandro del Rosario (Warsaw); Manuel Antonio Teehankee (Geneva WTO);
Antonio Manuel Lagdameo Jr. (London); Regina Irene Sarmiento (Prague); Mercedes Tuason (Vatican); Alexander Yano (Brunei); Cardozo Luna (The Hague); and Ana Ines De Sequera-Ugarte (Madrid).
Bataclan said Oscar Valenzuela (Cairo) and Zenaida Rabago (Dhaka) should also be in the list as they have become political appointees after their retirement as foreign service career officers.
Senga has since submitted his irrevocable resignation.
