Non-career individuals like former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who are past the allowed age of 70 are still being nominated to foreign posts despite a law that says otherwise.

by ELLEN TORDESILLAS

	FORMER SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE HILARIO DAVIDE JR. (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

UP FOR confirmation before the Commission on Appointments anytime now is retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., 71 years old, who has been nominated as Philippine Permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.

If confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, Davide will replace Lauro Baja, 69 years old and a retired career foreign-service officer.

As ambassador to the United Nations, Davide would have the duty to ensure that Philippine interests are protected in all the international treaties that the organization is crafting and implementing. For that, he would get at least $30,000 ( P1.5 million) a month, representing $20,000 free housing plus some $10,000 in salary and allowances.

In a country that honors its elders for the wisdom they have accumulated through the years, Davide's potential career shift late in life may seem most welcome. Yet within the staid foreign affairs department, grumbling over what many there see as yet another violation of the Foreign Service Act (Republic Act 7157) is becoming louder.

To many foreign affairs department officials and staff, the Act bars the appointment of non-career individuals aged 70 years old and above to a foreign service post after 1992. They also note that the Act specifically says that career officials and employees of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) are to be retired once they reach the age of 65.

Section 23 of the Foreign Service Act actually states: "All officers and employees of the Department who have reached the age of sixty-five (65) shall be compulsorily and automatically retired from Service. Provided, however, that all incumbent non-career chiefs of mission who are seventy (70) years old and above shall continue to hold office until June 30,1992 unless sooner removed by the appointing authority. Non-career appointees who shall serve beyond the age of sixty-five (65) years shall not be entitled to retirement benefits."

Despite this law, non-career people like Davide who are past the allowed age are still being nominated to foreign posts. Meantime, Baja — who Davide is poised to replace once his nomination is confirmed — is only one among several career officers still serving past the retirement age of 65.

This has been going on for years, say DFA insiders. But since their environment and nature of work encourage them to be pacifists rather than activists, DFA officials and staff have so far confined their grumbling about the age-rule violations within the department.

IT HAS taken former senator Francisco Tatad, who once chaired the Senate foreign relations committee, to bring the issue at least twice now before the Commission on Appointments.

Tatad had earlier objected to the appointment of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona as ambassador to China, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Mongolia. One of the reasons he cited was Guingona's age, which was "more than 70 years."

But the Commission went on to confirm Guingona, who was actually 76. Tatad filed a complaint against the Commission at a Quezon City Regional Trial Court to have Guingona's appointment "void from the beginning."

At the onset of the Hello Garci controversy last year, however, Guingona resigned before he was able to assume his ambassadorship.

When Davide was nominated, Tatad again objected. In a letter to then Senate President Franklin Drilon, Tatad said, "(Obviously) this law (R.A. 7157) did not anticipate the case of specially situated septuagenarians who may wish to become or accept the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary after they had retired from business, or other professions, or other branches of government, or even from the Department itself. "

"But," he pointed out, "it is the law, and our duty is to comply with it."