Please, not Domingo Lee to China

Early this week, President Aquino signed the appointment of 17 career ambassadors to different foreign posts.

Foreign service veterans said they haven’t seen this big a bunch of appointments of career officers in the history of Philippine service. Needless to say, the career officers are very, very happy.

“This would not have been possible under (former Foreign Secretary) Alberto Romulo,” a career officer said adding that morale is high in the department with Secretary Albert del Rosario whom they describe as “conscientious and hands-on.”

I don’t have the complete list of the 17. But here are some of them: Ricky Manalo to London; Cristy Ortega to Paris;Vicky Bataclan to Belgium; Leslie Baja to Switzerland; Maynard Montealegre to Greece; Lourdes Morales to Netherlands; Leslie Gatan to Canada; Ellen Jaucian to Hungary;

Belen Anota to Australia; Virginia Benavides to New Zealand;Eduardo Malaya to Malaysia; Ezzedin H. Tago to Saudi Arabia.

These appointments will improve the ratio of career ambassadors to political ambassadors. This points to a more professional foreign service.

Not yet filled are the positions of Philippine representative in the World Trade Organization in Geneva and ambassador to China.

No amount of lobbying by Gloria Arroyo representative to the WTO Manuel “Dondie” Teehankee convinced the President to retain him in Geneva. Earlier,Teehankee was so confident that family friendship would give him another six years in Geneva, he didn’t immediately come home even after the three month extension given to all Arroyo-appointed political ambassadors.

It’s worthhile to mention that Teehankee’s father, former Supreme Court Justice Claudio Teehankee swore Cory Aquino into office in Club Filipino on Feb. 25, 1986. The elder Teehankee was then associate justice. He was named chief justice when Aquino assumed the presidency via People Power.

But family friendship might work for another ambassador to China aspirant: Domingo Lee, whose only qualification for that very important post is he is a friend of the Aquino family.

A source said the one pushing Lee’s appointment is Eldon Cruz, husband of presidential sister Ballsy Cruz. We wonder why.

Although Secretary Del Rosario’s first choice is a non-career, preferably a businessman, for the Beijing post (We were informed that banker Edward Go is out of the running), he would prefer a career officer for such an important assignment than the likes of Lee.

Whereas DFA’s experience with the most recent political appointee, Francisco Benedicto, was a disaster, the track record of career officers in China is excellent. The late Pablo Suarez, Philip Mabilangan, Romeo Ong, Sonia Brady competently protected Philippine interest in the complex relations China.

Speaking of China, we hope that the filling of a diplomatic protest over China’s 9-dash line claim in the South China Sea is a signal that the Philippines finally mustered the spine in dealing with our behemoth neighbor.

Better late than never.

Several times in the past, we asked people in the DFA why we did not protest the submission of China with the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) which claimed as part of their territory the whole of the South China Sea, and answers we got were along the line of “China would not like that” and “We are no match to the power of China.”

Pathetic. You are not going to war when you protest another country’s incursion into your territory. You are merely asserting the integrity of your territory. In a civilized world, you assert your sovereignty through diplomacy.

It took us TWO years to finally found the courage to tell China, “Hey, you are including my territory in your map.” Malaysia and Vietnam, who also dispute China’s territorial coverage, filed their protest a day after China filed it on May 7, 2009.

Indonesia, who is not even a claimant in the Spratly group of islands, beat us in registering non-agreement to China’s all-encompassing claim over the South China Sea. It filed its protest in 2010.

VERA Files story on the Philippine protest with China explains the 9-dash line: “The map is called “9-dash line” or “9-dotted line” because it shows a series of nine dashes or dotted lines forming a ring around the South China Sea area, which China claims is part of its territory. The area includes the Spratlys group, a cluster of oil-rich islands disputed by five other countries, including the Philippines.

“China has been using the map with nine dashes in asserting its territorial claim over the whole of the South Sea. But the map first made its way to the UN body, when China used it to challenge the claim made by Vietnam and Malaysia over their extended continental shelves in the South China Sea.
Aquino is scheduled to visit China next month. Rather than spoil his visit, the Philippine’s firm defense of its territory, should earn him respect and understanding from China who is most steadfast in asserting its territorial claim.

For that, the Philippines should have a competent and capable ambassador in Beijing. Domingo Lee doesn’t fit the bill.