'Public has right to know extension of ambassadors' tour of duty'

MANILA, Philippines - Ranking career diplomats yesterday declared that the public, their “boss,” has a right to know the ambassadors whose tours of duty were extended for three months.

A document obtained by The STAR presented the record of some of the ambassadors co-terminous with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who stepped down on June 30.

The document cited Ambassador to Indonesia Vidal Querol telling his restive colleague envoys to just “shut up” over the issue of the extension of 21 political ambassadors.

Foreign service officials said the regular rotation in the foreign service would be disrupted if a substantial number of ambassadors would remain in their posts.

Sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) revealed Querol had an argument with some of his envoy colleagues, saying “the ex-police chief had the temerity to tell career diplomats to shut up for exercising their freedom of speech.”

“The DFA is a civilian, not military, organization,” ranking career diplomats reminded Querol.

The diplomats stated in the document that Querol could be best remembered for his dismal civil liberties record when he was still in the police service.

“Despite being reprimanded by the Supreme Court, he (Querol) justified the raid of a newspaper in February and warrantless arrests during a week-long state of national emergency pursuant to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Proclamation 1017,” the diplomats said.

The document also referred to Ambassador to Japan Domingo Siazon Jr. who is “convinced that he’s irreplaceable in Tokyo.”

The 73-year-old Siazon has served in the home office only when he was secretary of Foreign Affairs after passing the Foreign Service Office (FSO) exams in 1966.

In addition to his current nine years in Tokyo, Siazon also served in the Japanese capital as ambassador from 1993 to 1995 and as a young officer from 1964 to 1968.

In the same document, the 71-year-old top diplomat in Beijing, Ambassador Francisco Benedicto, was also described as a recycled political ambassador for all but three years since 1986.

Benedicto has served so long that he remarked at his Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmation for Beijing that he considers himself a career diplomat, the document said.

“China experts also alleged that he compromises RP’s position on the Spratlys, and that he negotiates death penalty cases of Filipinos without clearance from the home office,” it said.

Philippine Ambassador to Ottawa Jose Brillantes is Ambassador to Canada since 2005.

The document also detailed that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Australia complained that Ambassador Ernest de Leon is inaccessible.

The complaints alleged De Leon is usually busy playing golf and attending graduate classes at the Australian National University after learning that obtaining two years of graduate education could qualify him for residency.

De Leon, a former Navy chief, has yet to rebut allegations linking him to the infamous 2005 “Hello, Garci” scandal, for which he was allegedly rewarded with the Canberra posting.

In a Senate investigation, Gen. Francisco Gudani, then commander of the 1st Marine Brigade and head of Task Force Ranao in Marawi, named De Leon as among the two senior officers who told him to leave during the canvassing of votes in Lanao del Sur, among those provinces in Mindanao where election officials allegedly tampered with poll results in favor of Arroyo.

Philippine Ambassador to Port Moresby Shirley Ho-Vicario has incurred the wrath of OFWs in Papua New Guinea over her November 2009 remarks.

The local media had picked up Vicario’s statements in the wake of anti-Asian riots there that more than 80 percent of Filipinos living in the country are undocumented.

Philippine Ambassador to London Antonio Lagdameo was also cited to have incurred a lot of government expense for making a habit of transferring diplomatic posts each year.