MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has appointed former senator Orlando Mercado as the country’s new ambassador to China.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita also announced yesterday Finance Undersecretary Roberto Tan’s appointment as new national treasurer along with four other officials.
Tan has actually been serving as officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) since April 2007 when then National Treasurer Omar Cruz resigned for “family reasons.”
Tan was the head of the International Finance Group of the DOF before taking over the operations of the BTr.
Mercado would replace career diplomat Sonia Brady as the ambassador to China. Brady held the post for close to three years.
Prior to his appointment as ambassador, Mercado was president and chief executive officer of the state-run television network RPN-9.
He served as senator for two terms before being appointed by former President Joseph Estrada as his defense secretary in 1999.
Mercado ran for a third term at the Senate in 2004 but lost.
As ambassador to China, Mercado also has concurrent jurisdiction over North Korea and Mongolia.
The Commission on Human Rights also got its third appointee in Atty. Ma. Victoria Cardona as the second commissioner of the body.
Based on the webpage of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law, Cardona is currently the executive director of the Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, an organization that protects and promotes the rights of persons in detention, with special focus on children in conflict with the law.
Cardona teaches legal research and legal forms at the Ateneo Law School.
A master of laws in human rights, Cardona has an extensive career in the field of human rights, particularly on matters relating to the rights of children.
Her appointment leaves just two more positions vacant in the CHR after the President recently appointed Atty. Leila de Lima as chair and Cecilia Quisumbing as commissioner.
Acting chair and administrator of the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority Georgina Yu has also been appointed in a permanent capacity.
The President has also appointed Merly Cruz as undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry.
‘Leonida, who?’
In a related development, electoral reform groups urged President Arroyo to select the new Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners from the short-list of nominees that they endorsed to her last year.
According to Ramon Casiple, executive director of Consortium on Electoral Reforms (CER), a news report that Malacañang is considering soon-to-retire Judge Leonardo Leonida for the Comelec post bothers them.
“Nobody knows him. We’re wondering where the endorsement of that fellow came from. Of course we don’t know if the report is true but if it is, it may make us doubt the sincerity of the President in her commitment to reform the Comelec,” he told The STAR.
CER was part of a multi-sector search committee that endorsed to the President their nominees for the Comelec chairman and commissioners.
The committee had nominated for chairman retired Supreme Court associate justice Jose Melo, who eventually bagged the post, and Atty. Carlos Medina, co-convenor of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections.
For commissioners, they nominated former Davao judge Adoracion Avisado, PPCRV legal counsel Howard Calleja, Atty. Luie Tito Guia, Atty. Teresita Herbosa, Cebu presiding Judge Gabriel Ingles, information technology expert Ma. Caridad Manarang, former Commission on Human Rights commissioner Atty. Nasser Marohamsalic and Presidential Management Staff Undersecretary Enrique Perez.
Leonida was also not included in the short-list submitted by another search committee formed by Malacañang.
A report by abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak showed that the Palace will issue an ad interim appointment for Leonida, 59, to become an election commissioner.
At present, the Comelec is lacking three commissioners.
Casiple said he received an unconfirmed tip that Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte endorsed Leonida.
“If it’s Camarines Sur, I don’t think (congressman) Datu Arroyo will be far behind,” Casiple said.
Another source, however, revealed that Leonida was “jointly sponsored by Bishop Manalo and (former Justice) Secretary Silvestre Bello III.” Casiple added the committee members would meet to discuss their action in case Malacañang disregards their nominees.
Nothing is final
Malacañang, on the other hand, refused to confirm reports that the President has already made appointments for the three vacancies at the Comelec.
But Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Mrs. Arroyo will soon make announcements on her appointments because the poll body’s work has been hampered by the vacancies.
“Appointments such as these are final when there are papers signed by the President then it goes to me,” Ermita said.
Reports said Leonida was appointed to the Comelec along with Calleja and Jovencito Zuño.
Leonida is said to have been pushed by the influential Iglesia ni Cristo while Calleja is supported by the PPCRV.
“There are no appointments yet on Judge Leonida,” Ermita said. “I have not seen any appointment paper.”
“In all probability, an appointment paper is forthcoming whoever it will be, when the paper comes to me that’s the only time I can say appointment has been made,” he said.
He also said Mrs. Arroyo has reappointed Comelec Commissioner Moslemen Macarambon after the Commission on Appointments bypassed him due to lack of time. Congress adjourned last week. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Paolo Romero