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Category: Foreign Affairs

Davide can’t wait to go to New York

Published by Ellen on January 16, 2007

Retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide is moving heaven and earth to assume the post of permanent representative to the United Nations.

Like what he did on Jan. 20, 2001, when he trampled upon the Constitution to install power grabber Gloria Arroyo into the presidency, he is trashing again the law again just to be able to live it up in New York.

Last Sunday, in the margins of the East Asia summit in Cebu, Davide took his oath as Philippine permanent representative to the UN even if his nomination has not yet been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.

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Davide’s swearing in stirs foreign service

Published by Ellen on January 15, 2007

The swearing-in of Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. last Sunday as permanent representative to the United Nations in Cebu in the midst of Asean activities is causing a lot of concern among foreign service officers.

They sense something sinister. Davide’s appointment, despite his being past 70 years old, has already caused demoralization in the foreign service corps.

In a letter to Arroyo today, Michael G. Macaraig, president of the DFAPA (Department of Foreign Affairs Personnel Association), asked “Bakit? Dahil po ba na walang kwalipikadong tao na dito sa aming sangay manggagaling?” (Why, is there no one qualified from the DFA?)

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Challenge to Asean

Published by Ellen on January 9, 2007

The 12th Asean summit in Cebu on Saturday, Jan. 13, makes for good study on the vagaries of international diplomacy – a president gasping for survival hosting a summit of an organization threatened with irrelevance.

The most important document expected to be signed in the Cebu Asean summit is a framework charter of the 40-year old organization. The leaders will just agree on the basic principles, not the charter itself. A final draft of the charter is expected to be presented to the leaders in the 13th summit in Singapore in December.

Last week, S. Jayakumar, Singapore’s deputy prime minister, warned “”If it just continues to do more of the same, I think over a period of time, Asean will just become one of those organizations which will slowly fade into the sunset.”

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Asean summit cancellation fallout

Published by Ellen on December 14, 2006

Dec. 15, 2006, 4 p.m.

Marciano Paynor, head of the 12th Asean summit organizing committee,said today the Asean leaders have responded they will be attending the meeting in January. Click here for full story.

Related story: Malaysia urges leaders to attend reset Asean and Asia summit
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Foreign affairs officials this morning met with ambassadors of Southeast Asian countries and gave them the letter of Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo proposing a new date for the 12th Asean Leaders summit which is Jan. 10 to 15, 2007.

The latter also requested that the answer be given in a week.

Malacañang and DFA officials continue to maintain that it was “weather disturbance” that caused the cancellation of the summit. An Associated Press report said it was the terrorist plot.

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Asean postponed

Published by Ellen on December 8, 2006

Breaking news!

Citing the coming storm, “Seniang”, the 12th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation scheduled to be held in Cebu Dec. 10 and 13 is postponed. Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., secretary general of the National
Organizing Committee of the ASEAN Summit, said it has been re-scheduled to January 2007.

Paynor said even if “Seniang” was not expected to hit central Cebu, venue of the 12th Asean summit, they do not discount the possibility that it would cause severe damage in other parts of the Philippines and “the leaders would not feel comfortable about it.”

He denied it had anything to do with reported terrorist threats. The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have issued travel warnings of terrorist threats targetting Cebu. British officials said the believe “that terrorists are in the final stages of planning attacks.”

He also said the postponement had nothing to do with the political storm brewing in Manila due to the Senate-less Constituent Assembly that the House of Representatives will convene next week to change the form of government from presidential to parliamentary.

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Age-rule ‘violations’ have foreign service going gray

Published by Ellen on October 15, 2006

(I did the following article for I-Magazine of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism)

UP for confirmation before the Commission on Appointments anytime now is retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide, 71, who has been nominated as permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.

If confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, Davide will replace Lauro Baja, 69 years old and a retired career foreign-service officer.

As ambassador to the United Nations, Davide would have the duty to ensure that Philippine interests are protected in all the international treaties that the organization is crafting and implementing. For that, he would get at least $30,000 ( P1.5 million) a month, representing $20,000 free housing plus some $10,000 in salary and allowances.

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Emily Lopez, not yet an envoy

Published by Ellen on October 4, 2006

Looks like the ambitions of socialite Emily Relucio-Lopez, former governor of Guimaras, to be “ambassador” would have to wait a little longer. Gloria Arroyo has extended the term of Philippe Lhuillier as ambassador to Italy.

We know that Lhuillier, after failing to get France, has lobbied to stay in Rome. Looks like his powerful Cebu clout has done it again for him.

But, he has already been granted an agrément by Argentina. What happens now?

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Power of might over right

Published by Ellen on July 9, 2006

The latest launching tests by North Korea of shortrange and intercontinental missiles last week has renewed concern of an arms race in Asia.

In 2003, Thomas Omestad, in an article in US News, painted this scenario: “Faced with a nuclear breakout by a hostile regime, Japan reconsiders its antinuclear taboos, fields a larger missile force of its own, and plunges into developing a shield against incoming missiles with the United States. South Korea, with one eye on the North and the other on Japan, follows suit. China reacts with more nukes and missiles of its own. Taiwan, outgunned, opts for more missiles and, perhaps, nuclear bombs. A nervous Russia shifts nuclear and conventional forces for defense against its old rivals, China and Japan. India, a foe of China, expands its nuclear forces, a step that causes Pakistan to do likewise. An Asian arms race snaps into high gear.”

Hideaki Kaneda, a retired vice admiral of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and director of the Okazaki Institute in Tokyo, said in an article the arms race across Asia is already underway and North Korea’s testing last week confirmed it.

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