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MALACAÑANG yesterday confirmed that President Arroyo has appointed Presidential Management Staff chief Rigoberto Tiglao as ambassador to Greece.
Tiglao, in a text message to Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, said: “It will be a great honor for me to represent the Philippine republic in the fountainhead of Western philosophy and civilization. New horizons, new challenges in the service of the Republic!” Tiglao said.
Tiglao, in a separate text message to a contemporary Philosophy major at UP, said it has always been his dream to read Socrates in the original.
Tiglao laughed off suspicions that he was frustrated in being like Diogenes who when asked why he was carrying a torch in the middle of the day answered: “I am looking for an honest man.”
Tiglao set up the Transparency Group that undertakes lifestyle checks on government officials.
Bunye said Tiglao will stay with the PMS until he is confirmed by the CA.
He declined to answer questions on what the departure of Tiglao, a member of the Palace crisis management team, would mean to President Arroyo’s political survival. He said the questions were speculative.
“This is an appointment to an ambassadorial position. It is a position of honor. He has all the qualifications for the job. It is the prerogative of the President to appoint an official to a position where she thinks he can best serve,” he said.
He said Tiglao’s brainchild, the Strong Republic, is not likely to be affected by his leave-taking. “A Strong Republic is not grounded on individuals but on institutions,” he said.
Silvestre Afable Jr., another member of the crisis management team, resigned a few months ago as communications director and is concentrating on his work as head of the government panel in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Bunye, incoming media czar, will be taking over the functions left by Afable aside from his current job.
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