Marcos names 2 new envoys, 49 AFP officers

President Marcos has appointed two new ambassadors even as the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed the promotion of 49 ranking military officials, including Mr. Marcos’ chief security aide and former Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, Presidential Security Group (PSG) chief Brig. Gen. Ramon Zagala.

Former Foreign Affairs spokesperson Raul Hernandez was named the country’s new ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman. His appointment papers were signed on May 12, according to the Presidential Communications Office.

Hernandez, who served as Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson during the term of the late President Benigno Aquino III, used to be the Philippine ambassador to Turkiye with jurisdiction over Georgia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Before this, he was also the country’s envoy to South Korea.

Mr. Marcos also appointed Henry Bensurto Jr. as the new ambassador to Turkiye.

A former assistant secretary of the DFA Office of Consular Affairs, Bensurto also served as consul general in San Francisco, California, from 2014 to 2020 and secretary general of the DFA’s Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs.

A lawyer by profession, he was part of the Philippine team that filed and won the arbitration case against Beijing on the South China Sea dispute.

Pending confirmation

The appointment of Hernandez and Bensurto will be submitted for approval to the CA, which confirmed the promotions on Wednesday of Zagala, who as PSG chief is tasked with protecting Mr. Marcos and his family, and 48 other AFP officials.

The bemedalled Zagala breezed through the CA’s confirmation hearing, with Sen. JV Ejercito vouching for his character as the former security aide of his father, former President Joseph Estrada.

Ejercito also voiced his support for the promotion of Brig. Gen. Antonio Francisco Jr., Estrada’s former aide-de-camp, as commander of the 710th Special Operations Wing of the Philippine Air Force.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the Senate national defense committee and Ejercito’s half-brother, likewise threw his support behind their father’s former aides. At the same time, he lauded the AFP for the high trust rating it secured in the recent survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations.

Zagala is a product of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corp, having completed his Officer Candidate School program in 1993.His father, retired Maj. Gen. Rafael Zagala, headed the Philippine Army during martial law under the President’s father and namesake, former President Ferdinand Marcos.

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