FERNANDO AIR BASE—President Aquino yesterday said “troubleshooter” and newly appointed acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Jose Rene Almendras is one man who will stick by him and would be willing to do the difficult tasks during his administration’s remaining 113 days.
“Why did I appoint him? He has, of course, my utmost trust and confidence. (He has) proven his skills in so many different fora and at the end of the day, he continues to stand by me in the remaining 113 days. I maximized that. It will be very difficult to get somebody to go through all of the hardship in this post with the expectation that he will only do it for 113 days,” President Aquino told a press conference.
Prior to his new post, Almendras served as the secretary to the Cabinet and as energy secretary early in the Aquino administration.
Almendras is also a childhood friend of President Aquino.
Defending his decision to appoint his friend as acting Foreign Affairs Secretary, Mr. Aquino said Almendras had functioned as “troubleshooter” when he was Cabinet Secretary.
“A lot of us might not be aware that he played a big role in concluding the issue with Hong Kong,” Mr. Aquino said, referring to the dispute with the former crown colony after Hong Kong nationals were taken hostage and killed by a dismissed Manila policeman in August 2011.
The President said Almendras also helped in resolving the dispute with Taiwan in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard in May 2013 in northern Luzon.
Almendras also represented the Philippines in the negotiations for a bilateral economic cooperation agreement (ECA) with Taiwan.
Mr. Aquino said that it was Almendras who dealt with Taipei as the country’s One-China Policy prevents the President, the Vice President, the Foreign Affairs Secretary and the Defense Secretary from engaging with Taiwan.
“It was good that we had a Cab Sec (Cabinet Secretary) who could go at points in time, actually with adherence or full adherence to our One-China law,” the President said.