MANILA, Philippines—If the Philippine ambassador to Australia is also a full-time student, is he still fulfilling all of his duties?
This is the question that Bayan Muna party-list lawmakers want answered as they filed a resolution calling on the House of Representatives to investigate allegations that Ambassador Ernesto De Leon had been remiss in his duties because of his graduate studies.
De Leon is a former Philippine Navy chief whose name cropped up during a Senate investigation in 2005 of the “Hello Garci scandal” involving alleged attempts by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to rig the results of the 2004 presidential election.
The resolution said that De Leon, whose appointment to Australia was confirmed in March 2006, had been taking up his Master’s in International Affairs at Australia National University (ANU) since February 2008.
“Some members of the Filipino community in Australia lament the ambassador is not as accessible as they’d like him to be since he’s only available between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesdays or Fridays,” according to the resolution filed last month by Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño.
Asked about the resolution, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Claro Cristobal told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday afternoon: “I’ll check this.”
Monday night, responding to a follow-up query, Cristobal said the DFA had no statement yet.
A political appointee
In their resolution, Ocampo and Casiño said De Leon was not a career diplomat but a political appointee of Ms Arroyo and noted he was appointed ambassador to Australia “months after the [Hello Garci] scandal broke.”
The resolution recalled that at the height of the Hello Garci controversy, De Leon’s name came up when then Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani named De Leon as one of two senior officers who told him to leave his post during the canvassing of votes in Lanao del Sur.
Gudani was then commander of the 1st Marine Brigade and head of Task Force Ranao, based in Marawi.
Lanao del Sur was among the provinces in Mindanao where election officials allegedly tampered with poll results in favor of Ms Arroyo. Gudani testified at the Senate about supposed vote-buying in Lanao del Sur and del Norte.
“Brig. Gen. Gudani had claimed that his brief relief from his post was connected to plots to rig the results of the 2004 presidential elections,” the Ocampo-Casiño resolution said.
De Leon explains
Questioned later about the pullout of Gudani from Lanao del Sur, De Leon said he asked Gudani to leave his post and come to Manila to prevent speculation about any whitewash of an investigation of a shooting incident in Marawi involving a Marine.
In their resolution, Ocampo and Casiño referred to a reported assertion by De Leon that “he can juggle full-time work and full-time studies.”
The lawmakers, however, noted that students of the International Affairs course were required to attend lectures on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, which meant—they said —that not all of De Leon’s classes took place after office hours.
They also said De Leon’s tuition as an international student amounted to 24,000 Australian dollars, which was equivalent to P803,589 and “presumably being shouldered by the Philippine government.”
A mansion, a Mercedes
De Leon also gets to live in a two-story mansion in Australia, use a Mercedes and gets overseas, post, family, representation and clothing allowances, among his benefits, they said.
“In return, Ambassador de Leon is expected to be a full-time public servant to overseas Filipinos and the Filipino-Australian community and in advancing the interests of the Philippines within the coverage of the post,” they said.
The resolution asked the House committee on foreign affairs “to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on reports of apparent dereliction of duties committed by (De Leon) owing to his being full-time student at the expense of the Philippine government.”
