Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 24) — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said he picked former Presidential Management Staff (PMS) chief Naida Angping as ambassador to France upon her request to be appointed to a diplomatic post.
‘
The President said Angping, who asked some time off as head of the PMS in December last year, went to him and suggested that she be named as an envoy instead.
‘
“She had some personal issues that she had to work through, and she said I cannot do my work while I’m having to go through this,” Marcos said but opted not to disclose the reason behind Angping’s exit from PMS.
‘
“And she came back and she said, ‘Maybe I can just find something that will not — that I will be able to handle,’” the President added. “And I said, ‘What do you think?’ And she said, ‘If you could appoint me to a diplomatic position?’”
‘
Last week, a document from the Commission of Appointments showed Angping has been nominated as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the French Republic.
‘
This came just over a month after the Palace announced she sought “some personal time for herself and her family” and thus cannot assume her responsibilities as PMS chief.
‘
Marcos, meanwhile, defended the new appointment, saying Angping “has been working with the foreign service for years” despite her lack of experience holding any diplomatic post.
‘
“Tao ‘yan ng Uncle Kokoy ko [She was an aide of my Uncle Kokoy],” Marcos said, referring to former Leyte Governor Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez, who became an ambassador to the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia.
‘
“She (Angping) worked in the American embassy, the Philippine embassy in the United States,” he added. “She worked in, well, China. She worked in all of the areas that we were slowly opening up. So, sanay siya sa trabahong ‘yan [So, she’s used to that kind of work].”
‘
Marcos also said Angping has been working “for years” to pass the foreign service officer exam.
‘
“So, I think that’s what she is going to plan to do now,” he said. “Iyon talaga ang gusto niyang gawin since before. So now we will formalize her wishes.”
‘
