THE Commission on Appointments yesterday confirmed the appointment of the country’s ambassador to New Zealand and 14 officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Kira Azucena got the nod as the Philippine envoy to New Zealand with concurrent jurisdiction over Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands after Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chairman of the CA’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, sponsored her nomination and that of the 14 foreign service officials.
The other DFA officials who also got the nod were Chiefs of Mission Ariel Penaranda, Lilybeth Deapera, Edna May Lazaro, and Edgar Tomas Auxilian; Career Ministers Winston Dean Almeda, Shiela Marie Tario, Raymund Toledo, and Randy Arquiza; and Foreign Service Officers Jan Kenneth Bolante, Glenn Joseph Obach, Ira Micheline Valdez, Jan Sherwin Wenceslao, Francis Maynard Maleon, and Jeffrey Valdez.
Their appointments and nomination were approved with no objections.
The nomination of Bienvenido Tejano as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea was deferred by the panel after his answers to issues raised against him failed to satisfy its members.
During the CA Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, lawmakers flagged the sexual assault cases filed against Tejano.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros asked Tejano on the previous cases filed against him based on reports that he allegedly “invoked diplomatic immunity to escape charges in one of those cases.”
Tejano, who was then the country’s ambassador to Papua New Guinea, denied the allegation, saying the accusations were published and aired there (in New Guinea) “and they paid them in order to publish and destroy me.”
He said a Filipina trader accused him of sexual assault after he refused to help her.
Surigao del Sur 2nd District Rep. Johnny Pimentel said it was Tejano’s former Filipino household helper, and not a businesswoman, who filed the case.
