THE Commission on Appointments yesterday confirmed the appointments of Maria Cristina Aldeguer-Roque as secretary of the Department of Trade Industry, 21 foreign service officials, and 22 senior armed forces officials.
The confirmations were made after no member of the CA panels posed objections to their appointments, except for reserved Army Col. Suharto Mangudadatu who showed disinterest in his appointment.
During the deliberations, Roque said the department is intensifying its campaign against unsafe and substandard goods that have slipped into the market.
She said they have received a lot of complaints about products that go against product standards.
“We’ve already used, first AI, to answer the frequently asked questions because usually they are the same. Number two, we’re really strengthening on digital which we must do because there’s no way we can really track all these unless we go digital,” she told the panel.
She added the agency has hired more people to run after peddlers of substandard products.
CA majority leader Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte moved to reject the appointment of Col. Mangudadatu due to non-compliance and non-appearance at the CA meeting although he was invited.
Rep. Jurdin Romualdo, CA defense panel chair, approved the motion.
“The appointee failed to submit his documentary requirements, much less the appointee explained his failure to do so nor has he requested for an extension to the submission of the documentary requirements,” Romualdo said.
He said Mangudadatu has already been bypassed four times for the same reason.
“According to Section 24 of our rules, failure to substantially comply with the submission shall be grounds for the rejection of the nomination or appointment,” Romualdo added.
He said that under CA rules, an appointment that has been bypassed three times “shall be reported out” by the committee for appropriate action of the CA.
He added they have conveyed Mangudadatu’s apparent “lack of interest” in his appointment.
The CA also approved the appointments of 21 DFA officials, including Consul General Shirlene Mananquil, who was material in the case of Mary Jane Veloso when she was assigned in Indonesia.
Mananquil said saving the life of Veloso “was a team effort.”
Senators Ronald dela Rosa and Risa Hontiveros thanked Mananquil for their efforts in saving Veloso.
Dela Rosa also praised Assistant Secretary to Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)-Mindanao Maria Agnes Cervantes who helped a lot of Filipinos in the Middle East.
“If I am an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in the Middle East and will approach the embassy for assistance and it is you I see, then 50 percent of my problems are solved already. You seem to have a good character as a government official. Am I correct? Are you helpful to our countrymen who have problems there?” Dela Rosa said in Filipino.
Cervantes, who specializes in the Middle East, said her posts in the Middle East had been an eye-opener since they are one of the most problematic posts in the foreign service.
She said it is her duty to help Filipinos and her countrymen in trouble and she did this by listening to their stories, especially to things that were not expressed clearly.
