Senate President Franklin Drilon now wants a review of the Commission on Appointments’ (CA) rules to ensure that Section 20 could not be used “arbitrarily” to block the confirmation of a nominee “for no reason at all.”
“I have directed the Secretary of the Commission on Appointments to conduct a review of Section 20 of the rules, which allows a member to move for a deferment of nomination for no reason at all as you saw yesterday,” Drilon said during a weekly forum at the Senate on Thursday.
He was referring to Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, who invoked the said section of the rules to block the confirmations of seven nominees, including five ambassadors.
READ: Enrile blocks confirmation of COA, CSC officials
Drilon said he already asked the secretary to study how to amend Section 20 so that it could not be used “arbitrarily in order to shield our career officials from politics.
The confirmations of Commission on Audit Commissioner Isabelle Dasalla-Agito and Civil Service Commission Commissioner Nieves Osorio were deferred by the CA after Enrile invoked Section 20.
The Minority Leader also invoked the same section against the following diplomats:
- Charles Jose as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Malaysia;
- Dennis Lepatan as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Norway with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Iceland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republic of Finland, and the Kingdom of Sweden;
- Celia Anna Feria as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain with concurrent jurisdiction over the Principality of Andorra;
- Uriel Norman Garibay as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Kenya with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Burundi, Union of the Comoros, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Rwanda, Republic of Seychelles, Federal Republic of Somalia, United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Uganda, Republic of South Sudan and permanent representative to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme; and
- Lilybeth Deapera as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Chile with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Ecuador. CDG
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