The Commission on Appointments, in a plenary session presided over by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, unanimously confirmed yesterday afternoon the appointment of Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano as Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary.
Earlier in the day, Cayetano breezed past the CA Foreign Affairs Committee when it decided in less than one minute to recommend his confirmation as the country’s top diplomat.
After the CA Foreign Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson opened his committee hearing to determine Cayetano’s fitness to be President Duterte’s alter ego on matters of foreign affairs and foreign relations, Isabela Rep. Rodolfo T. Albano III, CA majority leader, presented a motion that the CA committee members agree to recommend Cayetano’s confirmation in a CA plenary session. The committee members then unanimously voted to recommend Cayetano’s confirmation.
Lacson said the CA committee’s decision in favorably acting on Cayetano’s case was the fastest so far on record.
Cayetano said he was humbled by the unanimous and painless decision of the CA committee and vowed to do his best “para di kayo mapahiya.’’
He said he would do his best to represent the interest of 105 million Filipinos. Cayetano also thanked some government groups that appeared at the CA committee hearing to show their support for him.
One of them, according to Cayetano, is Mocha Uson, a former model and official of the Movie Television Review and Classification Board, who was recently appointed as assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
As the country’s top diplomat, Cayetano said he is open to any suggestions and complaints and that he would sit down with the DFA top brass to get their inputs “and try to align what President Duterte wants’’ which is that the Philippines should be friends to all and enemies to none.
Cayetano said he would also try to repair any damaged ties with old allies. He reiterated the Philippines’ position that it asserts sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea and other territories recognized under the Treaty of Paris and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. (Mario B. Casayuran)
