(Last Dec.14, the Union of Foreign Service Officers wrote Gloria Arroyo and copy-furnished the Commission on Appointments opposing the midnight appointments of Francisco Benedicto as ambassador to China and Antonio Cuenco as ambassador to Italy. The CA rejected Cuenco’s appointment upholding the reason forwarded by the Unifors which is the appointment is a waste of money with only five months left in the Arroyo administration. The CA, however, approved the nomination of Benedicto.
The author of this article, Mr. Roberto Romulo, son of the statesman Carlos P. Romulo,was formerly foreign affairs secretary during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos.)
by Roberto Romulo
Philippine Star
In the course of the year, I usually devote a column or two to critical issues of concern in the Philippine foreign service, believing how vital it is to our ties with the world. This yearend column is such a piece.
Contrary to the feeling of some that ambassadors may have outlived their usefulness in the age of the Internet, competent diplomats are more important than ever. The new global security threats — not only terrorism — require more intimate knowledge of foreign peoples and places that still cannot be acquired from Discovery Channel and websites. We still need to get our passports from a government office and not from e-Bay. Trade deals still need to be negotiated and economic promotions have to be carried out face-to-face and mano-a-mano in the face of intensive globalization. International migrations call for countries, like the Philippines, to deploy diplomatic and consular agents in far-flung and often hostile parts of the world.
And perhaps most important of all, we need effective ambassadors to man the ramparts of a new 21st century international order where many new players jostle one another for ever greater global and regional power and influence. This game has quickened considerably since the position of the United States has begun to erode in many international arenas, including East Asia
