(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has already apppointed a new acting Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, after the Commission on Appointment (CA) rejected the appointment of Perfecto Yasay Jr., as DFA secretary.
Yasay’s replacement is Foreign Undersecretary Enrique Manalo, a career diplomat who rose from the ranks at the DFA.
“Undersecretary Enrique Manalo has been designated and appointed as Acting Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs by President Rodrigo Duterte,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a statement on Thursday said.
Abella also said that Undersecretary for Policy Enrique Manalo will hold the position until the President appoints a new secretary.
“Usec. Manalo is an excellent transition man, and has been on top of many crucial issues together with Atty. Perfecto Yasay,” Abella added.
Manalo has an extensive history as a diplomat and expert in foreign affairs. He became a deputy foreign secretary for Policy from 2007 to 2010.
Before coming to the United Kingdom as Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s in October 2011, he became Philippine Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of the Philippine Mission to the European Union (EU).
His foreign policy experience, especially on ASEAN and UN matters, is extensive, having served as Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva (2003-2007) as well as having been assigned to New York and Washington, DC.
Manalo is also a former Chairman of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). He was also the Head of the Philippine Delegations to Senior Officials Meetings of ASEAN and the Asia Europe Meeting or ASEM (2007-2010) and was the Philippine senior official to the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.
He also chaired the ASEAN London Committee from July to December 2013.
He is the son of Armando Manalo, a journalist who also became an ambassador to Belgium and political adviser of the Philippine Mission to the UN.
His mother, Rosario Manalo also served as chairperson of the UN Commission on the Status of Women from 1984 to 1986 and also became an ambassador to Belgium, France, and Sweden.
Eagle News Service
