What could three junior public servants do if the most powerful person in the land doesn’t want to sign their appointments?
Cry is about the only thing three budding diplomats could do as President Arroyo refused to sign their appointments as fourth-grade officers in the country’s foreign service.
The President reportedly refused to sign the papers because one of the three is no other than her daughter Evengeline Lourdes "Luli" Arroyo, who hurdled the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)’s arduous foreign service examinations last December.
The other two budding foreign service officers are Noel Novicio, a former journalist, and Myca Magnolia Maog.
Sources in the DFA said the trio’s appointment papers were forwarded to Mrs. Arroyo’s office on Jan. 22, or two days after the President was sworn into office.
The President, apparently wary of the propriety of signing her own daughter’s appointment paper, forwarded the documents to DFA lawyers and asked if the foreign secretary can sign the papers.
But acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Lauro Baja said this was a function that could not be delegated since all foreign service officers, no matter how junior in rank, are appointed by the incumbent President.
"The appointment paper must be signed by her mother," Baja said, dismissing notions that there would be a conflict of interest since Luli passed the series of written and oral examinations given to those aspiring to join the foreign service.
"She will be an asset to the department," Baja said.
Once the President signs their papers, the three will finally receive their salaries as foreign service officers IV (FSO-IV), a post they will have to endure for three years before they can be named vice consuls in one of the country’s embassies abroad.
More than 3,000 examinees took the qualifying exams for the foreign service tests. The examinees should obtain a grade of at least 75 percent before they can take the written foreign service exams.
Candidates should pass the written exams with a grade of not lower than 75 percent before they can move on to the third and final oral examinations, which they must pass with a grade of 80 percent.
Out of the 3,000 aspirants, only 322 candidates took the written and oral exams and Luli, Novicio and Maog were the only ones selected.
Luli is currently the director for operations of the Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development and holds a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
But while the delay in the signing of her papers is not likely to affect the presidential daughter, it’s a different case for Novicio and Maog whose long-cherished dreams to join the foreign service are on hold.
One of the two, who is already getting the hang of the diplomatic tradition of requesting anonymity in media interviews, is especially sore since she or he is low in funds and desperately needs to receive a salary.
The two are also alarmed that the signing of their papers may be inadvertently postponed when the electoral ban on new government appointments comes into effect.
Novicio was a senior Manila bureau reporter of Fuji Television Network and holds a bachelor’s degree in communication, major in journalism, from the University of the Philippines (UP).
Maog is currently at the DFA’s Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs and holds a bachelor’s degree in tourism and a master’s degree in international studies from UP.