The bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday, September 28, confirmed the appointments of Amenah Flaminiano Pangandaman as Department of Budget and Management (DBM) secretary and Enrique Austria Manalo as Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) secretary.
The CA, during its plenary session presided by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, concurrent CA chairman, also confirmed the appointments of 14 ambassadors and nine other diplomats.
It, likewise, confirmed the appointment of Nesauro Hernandez Firme who will represent the academe, Judicial and Bar Council and the Supreme Court.
Because of lack of time of other CA committees to conduct public hearings before both the Senate and the House of Representatives goes on a month-long recess starting tomorrow, the appointments of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo were considered bypassed.
They require re-appointment from President Marcos.
Senator Grace Poe, chairwoman of the CA budget and management committee, insisted that Zubiri should allow her committee to conduct a public hearing on the case of Pangandaman as the CA appeared to determine the fitness of Firme, Manalo and the 23 ambassadors and diplomats only as the CA members rushed to attend their plenary sessions in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
She later declared Pangandaman to be fit and qualified to be the DBM secretary.
Poe said Pangandaman would the only rose among the thorns that dominate the economic team of President Marcos.
‘’We wish her well,’’ Senator Alan Peter S. Cayetano of the CA minority group, said.
` Poe said Pangandaman, former assistant governor of the Bangkok Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP or Central Bank), is a Maranaw and a practicing Muslim.
Confirmed were Joseph Gerard Bacani Angeles as Ambassador to Brazil; Nathaniel Garcia Imperial as Ambassador to Italy; Gina Alagon Jamoralin as Ambassador to Indonesia; Jaime Victor Badillo Ledda as Ambassador to Belgium; Medardo Antonio Gonzales Macaraig as Ambassador to Singapore; Eduardo Ramos Menez as Ambassador to the Czech Republic; Hjayceelyn Mancenido Quintana as Ambassador and permanent representative of the Philippines to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Jakarta, Indonesia; Wilfredo Cunanan Santos as Ambassador to Jordan; Alfonso Ferdinand Agbayani Ver as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates; Grace T. Cruz-Fabella as Ambassador to Argentina; Lilybeth Rodriguez Deapera as Ambassador to the United Mexican States; Lilibeth Velasco Pono, as Ambassador to Qatar; Pedro Ramirez Laylo =Jr. as Ambassador to Israel; and Philippe Jones Lhuillier as Ambassador to Spain.
Also confirmed were Adelio Angelito Soriano Cruz as chief of mission, class I; Daniel Ramos Espiritu as chief of mission, class I; Christopher Baltazar Montero as chief of mission, class I; Gines Jaime Ricardo Dacanay Gallaga, chief of mission, Class II; Mersole Jala Mellejor, chief of mission, class II; Jason Jovencio Aljibe Anasarias, career minister; Maria Cynthia Paras Pelayo as career minister; Geronimo Capiendo Suliguin Jr., foreign service officer, class I; and LV Ignacio de Guzman as foreign service officer, class II.
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