Department of Foreign Affairs (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed two ambassadors and one Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official on Wednesday.
No member objected when the CA confirmed the appointments of the following:
- Philippe Jones Lhuillier – Chief of Mission Class 1, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain, with concurrent jurisdiction over the principality of Andorra
- Mersole Jala Mellejor – Chief of Mission Class 2, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Nigeria with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Ivory Coast, Côte d’Ivoire, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, the Gabonese Republic, the Republic of The Gambia, the Republic of Ghana, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic of Sierra Leone, and the Togolese Republic
- Raquel Solano — Chief of Mission Class 2
-
Prior to the confirmation of their appointments in the DFA, the officials were asked about several topics during the committee’s panel hearing.
Mellejor, for instance, was asked how he plans to build and strengthen the international consensus in favor of the country’s territorial claims over the West Philippine Sea, including Nigeria, the rest of Africa, and other countries as the nation’s representative.
“I think we have to start with a modest objective and that is knowing that, of course, we should not discount the fact that China has influence. I think the first step would be to make our position known and to explain why this is our position,” he said.
“We are in a position to do that because as diplomatic representation in those countries, we can always seek an audience with key officials. Kumbaga sa tagalog ay dahan-dahan lang po (In Filipino, we should take it slow), but obviously not losing sight of the fact that we are supposed to seek the support of these countries,” Mellejor added.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros further quizzed the ambassador on the best way to impose “diplomatic and economic costs on the Chinese government” for harassing the Philippine Coast Guard vessels in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone last August 5.
“We have to look at it in a way that many of these countries are signatories of the UN Convention on the Law of Sea, and just like any other country, they want to be seen as [a nation] who abide by this very important international agreement,” Mellejor said.
“We have to build a consensus through repetition of our position because there is an advance before that. When you keep repeating something at a certain point in time, the other party will believe it. Now the side of the law is with us, the ruling has already been given,” he explained.
“It’s only that we have difficulty pursuing the ruling because of certain factors beyond our control. The circumstances are difficult, but we just need to be consistent.”
RELATED STORIES
Palace bares new appointees to NBI, NIA and three other agencies
Malacañang bares latest batch of appointees