Press Release - Sponsorship speech Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada

Mr. Chairman, honorable members of the Commission on Appointments, this representation as Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs is privileged to sponsor the nominations and ad interim appointments of fifteen (15) officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Following a public hearing this morning which deliberated on their nominations and appointments, your Committee found them to be fit and qualified and ruled to endorse them to the plenary for the approval of this august body.

Distinguished colleagues, I am honored to recommend that this body give its consent to the nominations of:

1. ANTONIO ALBERO MORALES - Chief of Mission, Class I, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Commonwealth of Australia, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Republic of Nauru, Tuvalu, and the Republic of Vanuatu

Mr. Morales, a career Philippine foreign service officer with over three decades of experience, is presently the DFA Undersecretary for Administration. Before his appointment to this post, he served as our Ambassador to Singapore from 2014 to 2017, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Philippine Embassy in Beijing, and headed the Philippine Consulate General in Milan, Italy and Hong Kong.

2. DOMINGO PRADIEZ NOLASCO - Chief of Mission, Class I, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Finland

Since March 2023, he is designated as DFA Assistant Secretary of the Office of Financial Management Services. Our Camalig, Albay-born nominee held significant positions in the home office and was deployed in foreign posts, most notably as our Ambassador to Italy and concurrently as Permanent Representative to the agencies of the United Nations based in Rome from 2015 to 2022.

3. NOEL EUGENE EUSEBIO MEJICA SERVIGON - Chief of Mission, Class I as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Romania

Our veteran envoy from Iloilo City boasts of 36 years of service as a foreign service officer. He is assigned as Assistant Secretary and Head of the Internal Audit Service of the DFA. Among his previous diplomatic postings in various capacities were at the Philippine Embassies in Austria, Türkiye; The Hague, and Abu Dhabi. He was our