THE Commission on Appointments yesterday confirmed the appointment of two ambassadors and a foreign affairs official with no one among its members posing any objection.
Confirmed during the plenary session presided over by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri were Philippe Jones Lhuillier as ambassador to Spain with concurrent jurisdiction over the principality of Andorra; Mersole Jala Mellejor as ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria with concurrent jurisdiction over 12 other countries in Western Africa, and Raquel Rayel Solano, who was promoted as Chief of Mission Class II.
Lhuillier had been confirmed as ambassador to Spain in 2016 but needs a new confirmation since there is a new administration. He is the longest-serving foreign service officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs — 23 years in service.
Lhuillier served as ambassador to Italy from 1999 to 2010, before he was appointed as ambassador to Portugal from 2012 to 2016.
He is highly reputed for being one of the country’s “most prominent entrepreneurs and philanthropists.”
Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, CA Committee on Foreign Affairs chairman, said all the appointees were “fit and qualified.”
Estrada said Mellejor served as an executive director and deputy assistant of the human resources management office of the DFA since January 2021.
Before this, he was the Consul at the Philippine Consulate General in Milan, Italy from 2017 to 2020 “and assumed important posts” in Philippine embassies in Singapore and in Prague, Czech Republic. Mellejor started his career at DFA in 2002.
Estrada said Solano is the Deputy Consul General in the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, California, a post she has held since 2018.
