GMA to attend ASEAN summit sans envoy

President Arroyo will attend the Informal Summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos with her fellow heads of state from Nov. 29 to 30 without any Philippine ambassador at her side.

The President has yet to name a new ambassador to Laos to replace former Ambassador Antonio Cabangon-Chua, whose resignation she accepted last month.

The Philippine Embassy in Vientiane is now headed by charge d’ affaires Raul Dado.

Cabangon-Chua has come home to Manila and he told The STAR that he returned to his private business, which includes his insurance company, hotel and motel and FM radio station and AM radio station dwIZ.

Cabangon-Chua described his 14-month stint as ambassador to Laos as the most challenging career move he had ever taken.

"It’s very lonely there. So I decided that I have already served my country enough," Cabangon-Chua said, referring to his resignation.

He resigned as early as June but the President only accepted his resignation in September.

All presidential appointees, including ambassadors and other career diplomatic officials, have been placed on hold-over until otherwise re-appointed or replaced by the President.

It takes time before an ambassador is installed once appointed by the President, because this requires prior "agreement" or acceptance of the appointee by the host government and the appointee must also pass through the confirmation process of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Mrs. Arroyo’s forthcoming trip to Laos for the ASEAN summit will be her last official foreign trip this year.

She will join the other heads of the 10 member-states of the ASEAN from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Before attending the ASEAN summit, however, the President will first fly to Chile to attend also the annual Leaders’ Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), scheduled for Nov. 19 to 20.

Due to the lengthy travel time from Manila to the Chilean capital of Santiago, Mrs. Arroyo will make a stop-over visit to San Francisco, California.

The STAR also gathered that the Palace advance party is arranging a possible one-day official visit for the President to Mexico after she leaves the APEC meeting.

From Mexico, the President is scheduled make a stop-over in Los Angeles before flying back to Manila.

As of press time, however, the President’s itinerary has still not been finalized for her penultimate foreign trip this year amid the austerity program she has instituted for the cash-strapped government.