Gloria Arroyo as foreign secretary?

So traumatized and demoralized are the foreign service corps – with the damage control operation that they have to perform every time President Duterte curses other governments and international institutions plus the impending appointments of retired generals to ambassadorial posts – that many like the idea of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the next foreign secretary.

That’s the rumor in the diplomatic circle and all are in agreement that Arroyo, as former president, definitely has a better grasp of foreign relations compared to Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr.

One story going around in the DFA was the briefing given to Yasay in his first week at the DFA on human rights. After a lengthy briefing, Yasay asked: “Are we for or against human rights.”

Those in the room were flabbergasted, we were told.

Less than a month into his presidency, Duterte held a bizarre announcement. He belied rumors that Yasay was being fired but said his YMCA roommate who was living in Hawaii before he recruited him to be his foreign secretary “ will only serve for a few months, not even a year because he has contractual obligations to teach, professorial chair, well most universities in the western side… California, Hawaii and somewhere else. “

Arroyo, who represents the second district of Pampanga in the House of Representatives, was recently released from four years of hospital arrest in connection with various non-bailable plunder charges filed by the government of Benigno Aquino III. She is now in Germany for stem cell treatment of her spine ailment. She will also be going to France.

She has another scheduled trip in October to Hongkong.

Sources said with these foreign trips, Arroyo is testing her stamina for the job of foreign secretary which would require a lot of traveling.

If Arroyo becomes DFA head, Duterte’s idea of joint exploration in the South China with China can be fast tracked because Arroyo had entered into a same cooperation with China and Vietnam in 2004. It was called Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking or JMSU.

Duterte referred to it in his speech Thursday during the inauguration of the Filinvest Development Corp. Power plant in Misamis Oriental but couldn’t remember what JMSU meant. He said, “We have this scientific… well ‘no, it was supposed to be, actually, it was just a legalese, talkatese lang iyon, in a very diplomatic way, pero really towards a joint venture. Noong umakyat si Aquino, tinabla niya. So kaya galit ang China, galit talaga sa kaniya. Ngayon, sabi ko sa … usap tayo. But there will be a time. But just like what the Bible says — mga Kristiyano — there is always a time to talk, a time to be nice, a time to be angry, a time to be ugly, a time to be beautiful, a time for peace, a time for war, a time to be born and a time to die. Hindi natin puwede bigla-biglain ito.”

The constitutionality of the JMSU was questioned in 2004 by Bayan Muna before the Supreme Court which has yet to release its decision.

The Constitution states that “The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State.”

A joint exploration with China in the disputed areas of the South China Sea would undermine the award of the Arbitral Court in favor of the Philippines in the case filed against China’s all encompassing nine-dash line.

Justice Antonio T. Carpio, in many of his lectures about the decision of the Arbitral Court, said the international tribunal declared that the Philippines has no overlapping exclusive Economic Zone with China. The Philippines, therefore, cannot enter into joint development within our 200 nautical mile EEZ without violating the Constitutional provision that specifies, “The State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.”

“”So whether it’s President [Rodrigo] Duterte, President [Gloria] Arroyo, or any other president, that cannot be compromised. You cannot enter into joint development within our EEZ. It’s prohibited by the Constitution,” he said.

Calling the Arbitral Court award, “This piece of paper,” Duterte justified his approach of resuming bilateral talks with China, “ We do not go out of the four corners of this paper, we talk.. “

Duterte has named another former president, Fidel Ramos, as his special envoy in the talks with China.

This approach would suit perfectly with Gloria Arroyo as his foreign secretary.