Palace: Duterte to appoint acting DFA secretary on Thursday

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella. ALBERT ALCAIN/ Presidential Photo

President Rodrigo Duterte will appoint an acting foreign affairs secretary on Thursday morning following the rejection of the ad interim appointment of Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr.

READ: CA rejects appointment of Yasay

“An Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs will be designated and appointed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

“The Office of the Executive Secretary will communicate with the Department of Foreign Affairs by 8 a.m. tomorrow, 09 March 2017,” Abella added.

Under the law, chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said “the President is mandated to appoint a new Secretary of Foreign Affairs.”

“It mus be remembered that under our law, an ad interim appointment ceases to be valid upon disapproval by the CA, a constitutional body serving as a legislative check on the appointing authority of the President,” Panelo said.

Yasay failed to pass the Commission on Appointments (CA) after the body unanimously rejected the approval of his appointment amid his citizenship issues.

READ: Yasay admits to CA: ‘I was granted US citizenship in 1986’

Panelo cited that “the contentious issues surrounding his (Yasay) citizenship remained unsettled unless passed upon by a competent court.”

“Although I am personally unhappy to hear the news, that the Commission on Appointments struck down the ad interim appointment of Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay, we must still acknowledge and give due recognition to the discretion, as well as bow to the decision of the Commission on Appointments,” Panelo said.

“Accordingly, we shall await President Duterte’s appointment of a new Secretary of Foreign Affairs,” he added. JE