Ricciardone bids RP goodbye next week

US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone leaves Manila next week to assume a new diplomatic posting, leaving the embassy at the hands of Deputy Chief of Mission Joseph Mussomeli until July.

President Arroyo will confer the highest diplomatic honor, the Order of Sikatuna, on Ricciardone today when he accompanies visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick to Malacañang.

Ricciardone is expected to be replaced by Cameron Hume, currently US ambassador to South Africa. Manila has given its nod to Hume but the White House has not yet nominated either Ricciardone or Hume to the US Senate for confirmation. Ricciardone is expected to be posted next in Egypt.

Mussomeli himself has been nominated by the White House as ambassador to Cambodia. He will serve as chargé d"affaires in Manila when Ricciardone leaves on May 13 for Washington.

Ricciardone and Mussomeli paid a farewell call on the President at Malacañang the other day.

Mussomeli was handed a note verbale last month by the Department of Foreign Affairs after he warned, in an interview with Australian television, that Mindanao risked finding itself in an "Afghanistan situation" and turning into a "Mecca" for terrorism if both Manila and Washington lost its focus on the war on terror.

In a statement posted on its website, the US Embassy announced yesterday the impending changes. "Ambassador Ricciardone and his spouse, Dr. Marie Ricciardone, have expressed their fondest appreciation for the friendship and warm welcomes from so many Filipinos, Americans and other friends in Manila over the past three years," the embassy said.

Ricciardone has been in the Philippines since February 2002. He and Mussomeli were both offered the new postings in October last year by Colin Powell, at the time the US secretary of state.

Hume, a conflict resolution expert, has extensive background in the US mission in the United Nations, where he served as minister-counselor for political affairs for three years from 1994, the embassy website said. He was also tapped as adviser and then senior adviser on the Middle East in 1990.

Although not familiar with Asia, Hume has links with the US Institute of Peace, which plays a supporting role in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. — With Pia Lee-Brago, Aurea Calica