Philippine envoy to China fails to get CA confirmation

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine ambassador to China Domingo Lee failed to get the confirmation of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday even after under intense questioning from a senator, who expressed concern over  his  alleged “lack of experience and training” in the field of diplomacy.

The Commission’s committee on foreign affairs suspended its hearing without endorsing Lee’s appointment to the plenary.

During the hearing, Senator Sergio Osmeña peppered Lee with questions even asking him to define the terms “diplomacy,” “track one diplomacy,” and “hard power.

“You are in the field of diplomacy. Can you define what diplomacy is?” he asked during the hearing of the Commission’s committee on foreign affairs.

“Diplomacy is from time to time entails friendship…closer relationship with countries that you expect to be assigned,” said Lee.

“No sir, that’s not diplomacy? Would you like to try again?” said Osmeña.

And when Lee failed to answer his question, the senator answered his own question, saying that diplomacy is defined in wikipedia as the art of practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or estates.

“Yes, maybe the goal of diplomacy is always to maintain friendship but it’s the practice of negotiating,” said Osmeña.

The senator proceeded and asked Lee to define what hard power is.

Lee answered, “A strong…” followed by a strong pause that prompted Osmeña to say, “You’re guessing now. Are you familiar with the term hard power?”

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who was presiding over the hearing, even spelled the word “hard” for the ambassador.

“If I’m right hard power is a strong expression…” said Lee.

But Osmeña corrected the ambassador when he pointed out that hard power is either the use of military force or economic sanctions in order to obtain one’s goals

“So therefore, by that, you would now understand what is meant by the term soft power?” Osmeña asked again.

“Yes your honor, soft power is not going to war,” said Lee.

But Osmeña was not satisfied again, saying the precise definition of soft power is the use of nice things like economic aid, cultural ties, among others.

This did not stop the senator, however, and started asking the definitions of track one, track two and track three diplomacy.

“I have to admit I don’t know the term,” Lee said.

At that point, Osmeña explained why he was raising those questions at the ambassador.

“When we met about two months ago, I did ask you to study a lot because my concern was that your lack of experience, your lack of training would be a set back to the Filipino people if you are going to be sent to Beijing,” said the senator.

“We’re trying to test your fitness and competence for the petition, your ability to learn new things because obviously you are not trained and have not been trained in the field of diplomacy,” he added.

Meanwhile, five diplomats were confirmed in the plenary by the CA.

No member of the Commission objected when Senator Santiago endorsed on for plenary approval the ad interim appointments of the following: Nestor Padalhin (Chief of Mission, Class 1), Marlowe Miranda (Foreign Service Officer, Class I), Lenna Eileen De Dios-Sison ((Foreign Service Officer, Class II), Sharon Rivera (Foreign Service Officer, Class II), and Robert Eric Borje (Foreign Service Officer, Class II).