Today, I will use only a portion of my regular column space and reprint en toto the sponsorship speech of Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto at the Commission on Appointments the other day endorsing the confirmation of Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the United States of America.
Babe is a good friend and fellow journalist. He is a colleague, being the president of the Manila Overseas Press Club, where I am the chairman, and vice president of the Rotary Club of Manila, where I have been a member since 1989.
If you listen to President Duterte, Babe’s main mandate is to seek the return of the now-famous Balangiga bells of which there are three. The bells were seized by American invading forces in 1901 from the Catholic church of Balangiga town as war trophies after Filipino revolutionaries killed 78 US soldiers in the largest single battle loss then by the US Army in any engagement ever.
In reprisal, according to Wikipedia, General Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a “howling wilderness” and that any Filipino male above ten years of age capable of bearing arms be shot. From the burned-out Catholic town church, the Americans looted three bells which they took back to the United States as war booty. Smith was court martialed for the Balangiga massacre but he was basically treated with kid gloves by the US army command.
Here is Ralph Recto’s endorsement speech:
Our soon-to-be man in Washington DC is no babe in the woods in US affairs.
Though principally based in Manila, he has enough contacts in the American capital that he can be considered a Beltway insider.
So wide is his network, I was told, that should Trump drain the swamp, those flushed away and those who will remain are surely friends of his.
So wired is he with the beating heart of the US government, that a friend has joked that if the nominee decides to swim across the Potomac unannounced, someone in Foggy Bottom will be waiting with a set of dry clothes for him.
But more than connections, he has many other competencies, not to mention the communication skills, which make him a fine diplomat.
He is articulate in both the spoken and written word. He was a TV reporter, and remains a working journalist, churning multiple columns in a week, in addition to running a publishing house.
Though he has not held public office, he dabbles in policy, which qualifies him as a public intellectual whose views shape major decisions taken by those in power.
He is an influencer, but of the cerebral kind, whose contributions to civic debates are not confined to 140-character blasts, or troll-friendly memes, but in well thought-out think pieces.
The CA briefing paper says he is an Americanophile, which is good, because it means that he is abreast with US developments, and attuned to policy debates that would have an impact on our country.
Mr. President:
He will be going to the US capital during one of the lowest points of Philippine-US relations.
But I believe that he can heal whatever fissures there are, and correct whatever misconceptions have arisen in recent months.
Luckily the two countries’ relationship is so deep, and so is the knowledge of the person who will represent our interests.
And he knows how important his mission is, at a time when shifting geopolitical tides and changing global trade winds could lead us to perilous shoals, that after decades of refusing public appointment, this patriot has finally accepted one.
Thus, it is with pleasure that I second the confirmation of the appointment of Mr. Jose Manuel Romualdez as our ambassador to the United States of America.