Miriam returns to Senate, receives peace offering from Fariñas

MANILA, Philippines - After walking out of the confirmation hearing for the country’s ambassadors and foreign service officers last week, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago presided over the Commission on Appointments (CA) at the Senate yesterday and got a bouquet of roses from Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas.

Santiago blew her top when Fariñas questioned the lack of quorum during the hearing of the CA committee on foreign affairs chaired by the senator.

“Roses are never as sweet as when they are offered in friendship,” she told reporters after presiding over the hearing.

Last Thursday, Santiago wrote to Fariñas calling for a resolution of the issues raised in a conciliatory manner.

She and Fariñas have been friends for a long time, the senator said, and she had no intention of ruining their friendship because of some disagreements over the rules of the CA.

Ambassadors confirmed

Six ambassadors were was confirmed during yesterday’s hearing:  Melita Sta. Maria-Thomeczek (Germany), Maria Lumen Isleta (Indonesia), Domingo Nolasco (Italy), Wilfredo Santos (Qatar), Nathaniel Imperial (Israel) and Belinda Ante (Laos).

Former ambassador Hermenegildo Cruz manifested his opposition to the confirmation of some of the nominees taken up by the CA on the basis of a Supreme Court (SC) ruling on a case which he filed against Conchita Morales and Delia Albert.

Cruz claimed that the high court had abolished the positions of chief of mission and foreign service officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

But the DFA clarified that based on the SC ruling, chief of mission is a rank, not a position.

Santiago noted that under the foreign service law, rank is different from position.

The CA committee took up the opposition raised by former ambassador to Malta Virgilio Reyes, who questioned the confirmation of Leila Lora-Santos for her promotion as career minister.

Reyes said Santos was guilty of insubordination when she supposedly refused to report to him her activities while she was part of the Philippine Rapid Response Team in Malta.

Santos explained that her work in the Rapid Response Team was not under the jurisdiction of the embassy and that she was reporting directly to the secretary of foreign affairs and the undersecretary for migrant workers’ affairs.

In order to dispose of the opposition, the CA members asked Santos to apologize to Reyes, which was readily accepted by the latter.

Apart from the six ambassadors, 42 other foreign service officers were confirmed by the CA yesterday.