Philippine Ambassador to Germany Delia Albert will remain in her post until newly-appointed Ambassador to Germany business tycoon Alfonso Yuchengco completes all the requirements for the post, including the confirmation of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said that President Arroyo has never removed career officials unless they were promoted and has never violated the Civil Service Law. He said that he had duly informed Albert of Yuchengco’s appointment as the country's new ambassador to Germany. However, Albert will remain in her post pending the completion of the two requirements: the concurrence of the host government, in this case, Germany, and confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

The Department of Foreign Affairs Sunday clarified that Philippine Ambassador to Germany Delia Albert has retired as a career diplomat in 2005 and is a political appointee, thus serving at the pleasure of the president. This, following reports that Albert is still a career diplomat whose removal from the post caused a stir at the Department.

“Political ambassadors are recallable any time and we in the career service know that,” DFA spokesman J. Eduardo Malaya said Sunday, adding that since her retirement in 2005, she has been annually extended as a political appointee recallable at any time.

The DFA issued the clarification in the wake of reports quoting an unnamed DFA official as saying that the recall of a “career ambassador” had sent shock waves within the DFA.

Malaya said that with respect to the ratio between career and political appointees in the DFA, the Arroyo administration has appointed more career ambassadors and consuls general at 72.83 percent than previous administrations. The Estrada administration appointed 70 percent of the career ambassadors while it was 67 percent during the administration.

Former Civil Service Commission (CSC) chairman Pat Sto. Tomas, however, said that in President Arroyo’s more recent appointments in the government service, the percentage of career versus political appointments has been 93.7 percent.

In addition, four of the most recent vacancies in the foreign service: in Brussels, Belgium; Pretoria, South Africa; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Hanoi, Vietnam were filled with career diplomats, whose appointments were approved by the Commission on Appointments on October 14, 2009.

Under Section 17 of Republic Act (RA) 7157, also known as the Philippine Foreign Service Act, majority of the diplomatic and permanent missions shall be headed by career ambassadors.
The DFA, however, said that non-career ambassadors “complement the career corps and have historically enriched the Philippine Foreign Service with their deep experiences and wide backgrounds, notably business, journalism, military, labor and migrant workers advocacy.”

“They have helped advance the country’s strategic national interests in the international community,” the DFA said.

Born on August 11, 1942, Albert started her work at the DFA as an assistant at the Office of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1967 and passed the Foreign Service Officer (FSO) Examination in 1973. She was the DFA Secretary from Dec. 22, 2003 to August 18, 2004, succeeding the late Blas F. Ople and was replaced by current Secretary Alberto Romulo in a Cabinet reshuffle.

She held the post as Philippine Ambassador to Germany since January 2005.

Albert is the first woman Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the country as well as in the Southeast Asia region known for her initiatives in the adoption of a United Nations (UN) resolution on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant women workers, a very relevant and crucial government support for the millions of Filipino women working overseas.

Prior to her post as sSecretary of Foreign Affairs, she held the position as Undersecretary for International Economic Relations and Philippine Senior Official for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). She also represented the Philippines in various posts in Switzerland, Romania, Hungary, and Australia. She recently received from President Arroyo the “Most Outstanding Filipino Woman in Global Diplomacy” Award in Malacañang, particularly on March 19.