Search panel created for Tito’s replacement

Wanted: New foreign affairs secretary.

Short of putting out an ad, President Arroyo began searching yesterday for a new foreign affairs secretary, enlarging a standing presidential search committee to find a replacement for Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr.

The search committee is headed by Presidential Adviser Victoria Garchitorena. Mrs. Arroyo appointed Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman to the committee and brought back Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas as member.

Mrs. Arroyo temporarily assumes the helm of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) when Guingona steps down on July 15.

Entrusting to the expanded search committee the head-hunting for the top DFA post can be perceived as an attempt by the President to draw the controversy away from businessman Roberto Romulo, her senior adviser for international competitiveness.

Romulo is a member of the "specific sector" for foreign relations of the presidential search committee. The sector nominates officials for diplomatic posts.

He has been accused of masterminding the removal of Guingona from his foreign affairs post and of running a "parallel Department of Foreign Affairs," also called the "Sikatuna DFA" because of its Makati office address.

Romulo, a foreign affairs secretary during the Ramos administration, has strongly denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo admitted yesterday that the question of who really calls the shots at the DFA was the main reason why Guingona decided to leave the post.

The President told reporters in a chance interview that she has learned from her "mistake" and decided to expand the membership of the special committee.

Guingona has honored a commitment with Mrs. Arroyo that he will refrain from discussing his departure from the DFA.

Acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr. said the search committee for a new foreign affairs secretary is not the same panel operating under the Office of the President which screens candidates for important positions in the Arroyo administration.

Afable said the President created a "special committee" whose main function is to specifically find a worthy new foreign affairs secretary whom it will directly recommend to the President.

At a press conference, Afable said Mrs. Arroyo is likely to name additional members to the special committee and there was no deadline set for the committee to complete its recommendations.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz was appointed head of the special committee’s secretariat, he said.

Soliman is a former colleague of Mrs. Arroyo during her stint as secretary of the Department of Social Work and Development under the Estrada administration.

Sto. Tomas, a labor affairs expert and former chairman of the Civil Service Commission, is a protégé of Sen. Blas Ople during his term as labor secretary during the Marcos administration.

Ople has been widely reported as being pursued by the Arroyo administration as a replacement for Guingona. He said he was not interested in the job at the moment, but hinted that he will consider a sincere offer from Mrs. Arroyo "once the matter is extricated from the political and ethical issues in the Senate." Ople was referring to the current Senate impasse.

Afable denied again talks that an offer has been made to Ople, the chairman of the Senate committee on foreign affairs. He however refused to comment on the nomination of DFA Undersecretary Lauro Baja; Severino Reyes, the secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations based in Jakarta; former Trade Secretary Cesar Bautista, now the Philippine ambassador to the Court of St. James and former Philippine Ambassador to the US Raul Rabe.

Afable wished Guingona well on his 74th birthday yesterday. "We wish him the best in his continuing career."

He said despite the fact that Guingona was only appointed to the post of Vice President, the post is "secured by the Constitution."

Political fallout?

The resignation of Guingona, president of the Lakas-NUCD, and the undignified treatment he received from Malacañang have shaken the party, with members expressing a political fallout.

The President canceled yesterday an appointed informal luncheon press conference with the Malacañang Press Corps in another bid to avoid close contact with the media following the Guingona fiasco.

Meanwhile, the President said yesterday that her government will enlist the support of non-Asian neighbors to address the country’s poverty problems.

Mrs. Arroyo reiterated her policy to pursue "economic complementarity" together with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"Our alliance against poverty is deeply embedded in the ASEAN. This alliance must be further re-enforced by deeper economic ties with countries and group of countries beyond ASEAN," she said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for International and Economic Relations Sixto Roxas said he believes that the next secretary of foreign affairs should be "an authentic patriot" who will consider national interest above all.

He said being patriotic does not mean being anti-American but being pro-Filipino, an apparent allusion to the policy difference between the President and the Vice President on the presence of US troops in the Philippines, notably with the current joint RP-US Balikatan 02-1 anti-terror military exercise.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers called the resignation of Guingona "a gallant gesture of a genuine statesman."

Barbers said Guingona’s move will "put an end to the opposition’s dream of breaking up the administration by sowing intrigues and creating an imagined rift among Lakas members."

"Vice President Guingona has shown gallantry that only few men are capable of doing. He deserves our utmost respect, commendation and support. Indeed, Vice President Guingona has consistently shown that he puts the interest of the country above himself, an enviable trait which unfortunately many of us sorely lack," Barbers said.

Sen. Edgardo Angara urged Mrs. Arroyo to immediately name a new foreign affairs secretary.

Angara said the President should not fall into the temptation of focusing on foreign affairs but instead do her work on tackling basic and urgent matters such as bringing down the cost of electricity. – With reports from Aurea Calica, PNA, AFP, Reuters