MANILA, 17 November 2005 — Ambassador Bahnarim A. Guinomla said yesterday he will be leaving his Riyadh post by early next year to assume his assignment as Philippine envoy to Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Guinomla was among 11 ambassadors and 10 career foreign service officers whose nominations were confirmed by the Commission on Appointments early in the day.
“I’ll be back in Riyadh very soon,” he told Arab News, explaining that he still has plenty of work to complete and responsibilities to attend to.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) normally gives its diplomats a few months to move to another post.
Guinomla assumed his post as ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Yemen in mid-2002, replacing then Ambassador Rafael E. Seguis, who became envoy to Indonesia before his elevation to the post of DFA undersecretary for special concerns.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has yet to nominate the next ambassador to Riyadh. Speculations that retired Gen. Roy Cimatu was being eyed for the post has become more pronounced when he came to the Saudi capital last week to play golf and meet with some community leaders.
Guinomla, however, told Arab News before he left for Manila on Sunday night that Cimatu’s visit has something to do with his assignment as President Arroyo’s special envoy to the Middle East.
DFA spokesman Gilbert Asuque yesterday said a charge d’affaires could always be assigned at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh in case the next ambassador is still not ready to move in when Guinomla leaves.
Earlier this year, Guinomla was nominated as envoy to Pakistan but this was changed to Turkey in the DFA’s latest reshuffling of foreign service personnel.
The post in Pakistan went to Jaime Yambao, one of those whose nominations was confirmed by the CA yesterday. Yambao will also be the envoy to neighboring Afghanistan and the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan.
Also getting the nod of the CA were Ambassadors Jose del Rosario, to Jordan and Palestine Republic; Linglingay Lacanlale, to Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Slovak Republic; Sonia Brady, to China, North Korea, and Mongolia; Norberto Basilio, to Bangladesh; Al Francis Bichara, to Lebanon; Susan Castrence, to South Korea; Victoriano Lecaros, to Malaysia; Jose Zaide, to France; and Ramoncito Marino, to Palau.
Confirmed as career ministers were Maria Rosario Aguinaldo, Junever Mahilum-West, Frank Cimafranca, Domingo Nolasco, Noel Eugene Servigon, Sahid Glang, Constancio Vingno. The others were chief of mission Reynaldo Catapang; foreign service officer class II Marlowe Miranda, Adelio Angelito Cruz, and Enrico Fos; and foreign service officer class I Renato Pedro Villa.
The CA deferred discussion on the nomination of Philippe Lhuiller as ambassador to Argentina pending his arrival from Rome.