US sending acting ambassador to RP

The US government is sending an acting ambassador to Manila at the end of the month.

Sources said Darryl Johnson arrives in Manila on July 31, about a week before the departure of Chargé d’Affaires Joseph Mussomeli to assume his post as US ambassador to Cambodia.

Johnson was plucked out of retirement from the Foreign Service to serve as temporary replacement for Francis Ricciardone, who ended his stint in Manila two months ago. Ricciardone is in Washington for briefings prior to his new assignment as ambassador to Egypt.

The White House has not nominated to the US Senate a replacement for Ricciardone. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is considering Kristie Anne Kenney, currently ambassador to Ecuador. If Kenney’s nomination pushes through, she is expected in Manila in October.

Washington originally got Manila’s agreement to the appointment of Cameron Hume as Ricciardone’s replacement. But Hume was not nominated to the US Senate and will remain as ambassador to South Africa.

Mussomeli’s nomination to Cambodia was confirmed by the US Senate a month ago. He leaves for Washington for briefings in early August before assuming his post in Phnom Penh.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo confirmed Monday night that Washington had mentioned a name for its new ambassador to the Philippines but he refused to provide details.

"All I know is what Condoleezza Rice told me during a meeting in Washington last May, that (US) President (George W.) Bush wants to send a very good ambassador to the Philippines who can represent US interests here and do a good job. What I heard is a very good and seasoned diplomat (will be the next US envoy to Manila)," Romulo said at the Manila Overseas Press Club’s diplomatic forum held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City.

Johnson was ambassador to Thailand from March 2002 to December 2001. Prior to that, he was deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs responsible for China and Mongolia.

He was a Peace Corps volunteer before he entered the Foreign Service in 1965. His previous postings include India, Hong Kong, Moscow, Beijing, Warsaw, Lithuania and Taiwan.

If appointed, Kenney will be the first female US ambassador to Manila.

A diplomatic source said Ricciardone and his predecessor, Thomas Hubbard, "speak highly" of Kenney, who had a good record as the US State Department’s executive secretary for three years.

Kenney is also the first woman to hold this key position, according to her biography posted on the US State Department website.

As former executive secretary of the US State Department, Kenney headed a staff of 185 persons responsible for inter-agency policy coordination and crisis management and worked directly under former secretaries Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. She also led the team that handled the transition from the Clinton administration to the current one.

She was also named senior advisor to the assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement in 2001 before she was appointed envoy to Ecuador in 2002.

Kenney, a native of Washington, DC, had been a page for the US Senate, a tour guide in the US Capitol, and an intern in the House of Representatives. She speaks Spanish and French.

She received the US State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, the Arnold Memorial Award for leadership, motivation and mentoring as well as several superior honor awards. — With Pia Lee-Brago