MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has nominated career diplomats as new ambassadors who will fill several posts abroad, including in the Czech Republic, whose ambassador recently complained of an attempted extortion related to the expansion of the Metro Rail Transit 3.
The new Ambassador to the Czech Republic is Victoriano Lecaros, a career diplomat who was assigned to various posts before and served as spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte also announced in a press briefing yesterday the nomination of Cecilia Rebong as the Philippine permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and Maria Rowena Sanchez as ambassador to Turkey with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Azerbaijan.
DFA Assistant Secretary for Asia and Pacific Affairs Maria Theresa Lazaro, meanwhile, was appointed ambassador to France with concurrent jurisdiction over Monaco.
Other ambassadors appointed are DFA Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Jaime Victor Ledda to Netherlands; Catalino Dilem Jr. to the United Mexican States (Mexico) with concurrent jurisdiction over Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Venezuela) and Cuba; Narciso Castañeda to the Sultanate of Oman; Edsel Barba to Iraq; and Vicente Vivencio Bandillo to Bangladesh with concurrent jurisdiction over Sri Lanka and Maldives.
The list of the new appointees was submitted to the Commission on Appointments for confirmation along with those whose jurisdictions were expanded.
Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Cuisia Jr. has concurrent jurisdiction over the US Virgin Islands, Grenada and Puerto Rico. His additional jurisdictions are Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Haiti.
The jurisdiction of Ambassador to Hungary Eleanor Jaucian, meanwhile, has been expanded to Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova in addition to Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Republic of Serbia.
Ambassador to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Enrique Manalo Jr. now has additional jurisdiction over the Republic of Ireland, while Ambassador to Norway Bayani Mercado who also has concurrent jurisdiction over Iceland and Denmark now has jurisdiction over Finland and Sweden.
Ambassador to Poland Patricia Ann Paez now has concurrent jurisdiction over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Ambassador to Mexico George Reyes, who has concurrent jurisdiction over Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama now has jurisdiction over Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Cuba.
“Out of the additional jurisdictions announced earlier, only the post in Dublin and Cuba were part of the 10 that were closed down by DFA since the current administration assumed office. The rest of the areas were simply realigned from other existing posts after an assessment done by the DFA,†Valte said.