CA should boost vetting of future envoys — Gullas

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu First District Representative Eduardo Gullas said yesterday that the Commission on Appointment (CA) may find ways to strengthen its screening of the country’s future ambassadors.

Following the involvement of two envoys in scandals abroad, Gullas said nominees for ambassadors should be scrutinized and that CA is highly capable of performing more extensive background checks on nominees – well beyond just scratching the surface of their credentials.

“The CA, if it wants to, can put ambassadorial nominees under a more powerful microscope, considering that they are supposed to represent our country abroad and their actions overseas reflect on us,” said Gullas, former CA vice chairperson and head of the 12-member House contingent to the bicameral appointments body.

Gullas said the CA’s Appointments Review and Investigation Service (ARIS) can conduct deeper inquiries into the personal history and circumstances of nominees, besides looking into their experience, education and training.

The ARIS, he said generates an individual investigation report (on every nominee) that is given to CA members prior to committee hearings.

He said the country’s supply of ambassadors comes from career diplomats as well as political appointees.

It can be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte recently dismissed from service Marichu Mauro, the country’s ambassador to Brazil, after she was caught on video repeatedly physically abusing her Filipina household helper.

Mauro, a career diplomat who joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1996 was appointed as ambassador to Brazil, with concurrent jurisdiction over Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela. She was confirmed by the CA in February 2018.

On the other hand, Noe Wong, the Philippine ambassador to South Korea, was forced to resign in March last year after he was accused of sexual harassment by a South Korean woman in her early 30s.

Gullas said that upon the request of the Korean National Police Agency, the Interpol has issued a red notice for Wong.

The notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.

Wong’s appointment as ambassador to Seoul was confirmed by the CA in February 2019.

He was first appointed as ambassador to Cambodia by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and was reappointed to the same post by former President Benigno Aquino III. — KQD (FREEMAN)