CA OKs appointments of 2 envoys, DFA official

The Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed on Wednesday the nominations of two ambassadors and the promotion of one Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official.

This, after the CA committee on foreign affairs endorsed the following appointments and promotions to the plenary:

·       Philippe Jones Lhuillier – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Principality of Andorra, with the salary and emoluments of a Chief of Mission, Class I

·       Mersole Jala Mellejor – Chief of Mission, Class II, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Cote D’Ivoire, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, the Gabonese Republic, the Republic of the Gambia, the Republic of Ghana, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic of Sierra Leone and the Togolese Republic

·       Raquel Rayel Solano – to the rank of Chief of Mission, Class II

Senator Jinggoy Estrada, chairman of the CA panel, hailed Lhuillier for devoting 23 years to the Philippine foreign service.

He was the country’s longest-serving ambassador to the Italian Republic for 11 years, from 1999 to 2010, as well as ambassador to the Portuguese Republic from 2012 to 2016.

"He has been our Ambassador to Spain since September 2016. He is highly reputed for being one of the most prominent entrepreneurs and philanthropists in the Philippines," Estrada said.

Meanwhile, Estrada acknowledged Mellejor’s 21 years in foreign service and for being named an Outstanding Employee of the DFA twice.

The senator said Mellejor has served as executive director and deputy assistant secretary of the Human Resources Management Office in the DFA since January 2021.

Prior to this, he was posted as consul at the Philippine Consulate General in Milan, Italy, from 2017 to 2020, and assumed important posts in Philippine Embassies in Singapore and Prague, Czech Republic.

Estrada said that Solano has been serving as Deputy Consul General at the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, California, since 2018.

In the DFA, Solano served as executive director of the Office of the United Nations and other International Organizations (UNIO).

She was also deployed to various overseas posts, including the Philippine Embassies in Manama, Bahrain, and Doha, Qatar, and the Philippine Consulate General in Agana, Guam. — VBL, GMA Integrated News