President Benigno Aquino III has appointed Department Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Eduardo Malaya and 16 other career diplomats to different ambassadorial positions abroad, deputy president spokesperson Abigail Valte announced on Sunday.
Valte, in an interview on state-run dzRB radio, said President Aquino has named Malaya, also DFA assistant secretary, as Philippine ambassador to Malaysia.
The other appointees were:
- Belen Anota to Australia, Nauru, Vanuatu, and Tuvalu;
- Victoria Bataclan to Belgium, Luxembourg, European communities and the European Union;
- Leslie Gatan to Canada
- Wilfredo Maximo to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica;
- Cristina Ortega to France and Monaco;
- Ma. Cleofe Natividad to Germany;
- Meynardo Montealegre to the Hellenic Republic and Cyprus;
- Eleanor Jaucian to Hungary, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the Republic of Serbia;
- Generoso Calonge to Israel;
- George Reyes to the United Mexican States, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama;
- Lourdes Morales to the Netherlands;
- Virginia Benavidez to New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa;
- Bayani Mercado to Norway, Iceland, and Denmark;
- Edgardo Manuel to Poland;
- Leslie Baja to Switzerland and Liechtenstein;
- Enrique Manalo to United Kingdom and Northern Ireland
Anota previously served as the country's Ambassador to Singapore while Bataclan held past ambassadorial duties in Norway and Sweden and was also the country's consul general in Hong Kong back in 2003. Natividad worked as consul general in Frankfurt while Gatan and Ortega both served as former foreign affairs assistant secretaries.
Jaucian, meanwhile, served as consul general in Sydney, Australia while Morales was former Ambassador to Cambodia. Benavidez and Baja both served as DFA assistant secretary for legislative liaison unit and protocol and state visits; and for European Affairs respectively.
Mercado was consul general in Guam while Manuel was former charge d'affaires in Warsaw, and Manalo served as ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and head of mission to the European Union.
Maximo, Montealgre and Calogne served as consul general in Saipan, Vienna and Dubai respectively while Reyes was former ambassador to Cuba.
President Aquino appointed the new ambassadors last April 12 in keeping with his administration's resolve to appoint more career officials than political ones in the DFA.
In an interview with GMA News Online, Malaya said he will bring with him a wealth of experience that includes serving as Philippine panel adviser in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) from 2009 to 2010.
Malaysia has served as third-party facilitator in the negotiations that aim to end decades-old armed conflict in southern Philippines.
Malaya will leave the post of DFA spokesperson after the agency underwent "the most challenging of circumstances," from the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Egypt in January to the execution of three Filipino drug couriers in China last March.
Under his watch, he said the DFA made sure to respond promptly to media queries -- one thing he will receive in a less pressing manner in his new assignment.
"I won't be getting early morning calls from reporters, which often served as my alarm clock," Malaya said. "However, I'm looking forward to another field which I am sure will be equally challenging."
As DFA assistant secretary for legal affairs, Malaya said the other legacies he will leave include a digital database of all Philippine treaties since 1946. He said the database of treaties can serve as a reminder of the opportunities that the Philippines and other countries can tap in areas like labor, tourism, and trade.
"This is the first time that this has been done after a quarter of a century," he said.
source: gmanews
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