President Marcos has named veteran journalist Jaime Florcruz as the Philippine ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China with concurrent jurisdiction over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Mongolia.
Florcruz will receive the salary and emoluments of a Chief of Mission, Class 1.
His name was listed in the roll of Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) envoys to be subjected to public hearings by a foreign relations committee of the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA).
The reglamentary public hearing is for the CA to determine the fitness of the President’s appointees or nominees to be confirmed to their positions.
Because of the scheduled daily deliberations on the proposed 2023 national budget starting tomorrow (Nov. 8), Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri suspended CA hearings and plenary sessions until late this month.
Florcruz is known as an anti-Marcos activist who was exiled in China in the 1970s under the President’s father and namesake, President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos..
He was the former Beijing bureau chief of CNN.
His appointment was signed on October 19 and forwarded to the CA a day after.
During the Duterte presidency, Chito Sta. Romana, former Beijing bureau chief of ABC News, was named as the country’s ambassador to China. He was also an anti-Marcos activist. He died last April at the age of 74.
Florcruz covered key events in China , including 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, the death of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the 1997 Hong Kong turn over and the 2008 Olympics, among others.