The Commission on Appointments on Wednesday confirmed the ad interim appointments of five armed forces officials and 85 foreign service officials, including three ambassadors, during the special session called by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Promoted to Lieutenant General was Edmundo Peralta, to the rank of Vice Admiral was Alan Javier, to Major General was Isagani Criste, to Brigadier General was Niceforo Diza Jr., and also to the rank of Brigadier General was Rosemawatte Remo.
Josel Francis Ignacio was appointed as non-resident ambassador to the Kingdom of Bhutan, in addition to being ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of India, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal; Senen Tiemsin Mangalile as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Cambodia; and Noel Mangaoang Novicio as ambassador to the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru, Independent State of Samoa, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu, and the Republic of Vanuatu, in addition to being ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Fiji.
The five armed forces officials came back to face the members of the CA as their initial confirmation was deferred due to the Senate leadership row.
During the deliberations, Sen. Rodante Marcoleta said the confirmation of the five generals was deemed bypassed after the Senate went on a sine adjournment on June 4; thus, their promotions may be in violation of the law, which only allows the promotion of officers to star-rank or to the next rank higher with more than one year left in the service.
Marcoleta said he is not opposed to the promotions, but he just wanted to make sure that they are following the law.
He cited a provision of the law that to be eligible for promotion or appointment to the rank of Brigadier General/Commodore or higher, the officer must have at least one year remaining in active service before his or her compulsory retirement.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the ad interim appointments of the five armed forces officials were just a resubmission of their previous ad interim appointments given before the resumption of their session last May.
“Since this is a special session, it is a continuation of the regular session. Therefore, hindi pa po sila pasok sa one year ban kasi hindi naman po nila kasalanan na nagkagulo-gulo dito sa Senado
(Since this is a special session, it is a continuation of the regular session. Therefore, they are not covered by the one-year ban because it is not their fault that we had problems here in the Senate),” Lacson said.
Marcoleta said, “I don’t think we are in the position to violate an existing law.”
“What I heard is an assumption that was passed on to the secretary of this commission…Somebody presumed that the appointment made last year is supposed to be continued,” he added.
Senate President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III manifested that Marcoleta’s argument is subject to debate.
However, nobody objected to the ad interim appointments of the five generals, hence they were approved by the body.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros questioned Foreign Service Officer John Paul Tapia Samonte about a 2017 incident where he was reportedly admonished for failing to properly supervise a personnel allegedly involved in illegal issuance of Philippine Hajj passports.
Hontiveros said she received information that said that Samonte allegedly failed to supervise a subordinate involved in the illegal scheme.
“Can you clarify this for our committee?” he said.
Samonte denied involvement in the illegal activity, saying he was responsible for overseeing around 300 personnel as Principal Assistant in the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of Consular Affairs-Passport Division.
He said the incident occurred during a transition period in the passport system and was cleared of any wrongdoing.