US watching RP ‘closely’

WASHINGTON - The United States is “following the situation closely in Manila and Mindanao,” a top State Department official said during a briefing in this U.S. capital on Oct. 4.
“We’re aware of the governmental issues, and we are aware of the situation in Mindanao,” said Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. “We are following the situation in Manila and Mindanao very carefully.”
The U.S. has openly expressed concern over terrorists entering the Philippines through its porous backdoor, more recently by Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone when he left Manila mid-year.
The afternoon briefing at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center was actually about the fourth round of the six-party talks on the North Korea nuclear issue. Hill heads the U.S. delegation to the six-party talks.
But Hill gave the reply at a Q & A to stress the importance of the Philippine-U.S. alliance. American focus in Asia has largely been on North Korea’s nuclear threat and China’s growing power in the region.
New team
Hill also said the U.S. would soon have a new team in the Philippines: Ambassador Kristie Anne Kenney in Ecuador, who’s awaiting her White House nomination and Senate confirmation this month, and Paul Jones.
He said the U.S. had a new deputy chief of mission, Paul Jones, who would be the charge d’affaires “next week,” or during the second week of this month.
“I picked him personally,” he said. “He was my deputy in a previous ambassadorship I had,” referring to Macedonia
He added: “We’re very close. He’s an extremely competent person. I know that he will do an admirable job until we have a new ambassador in place.”
Hill said the U.S. has a temporary ambassador in the Philippines. Ambassador Darryll Johnson was plucked from retirement for the post in Manila.
Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Albert del Rosario made the same point in an interview on Sept. 28. He said the absence of an American envoy did not reflect on RP-U.S. alliance, which, he noted, “remains strong.”
“The U.S. could just have let a deputy chief of mission run things there,” he stressed. “But it sent a distinguished ambassador, Darryl Johnson, and soon we’ll have a new ambassador.”
He said Kenney would assume her new post in the Philippines next month.
Kenney, who will become the first female ambassador to the Philippines,  will still have to be formally nominated by President Bush. The Senate foreign relations committee will then hold a confirmation hearing.
On Sept. 29, Andy Fisher, top aide of Sen. Richard Lugar (Republican from Indiana), the Senate committee chair, said  the White House has not issued a statement nominating Kenney.
Fisher said in an interview by email, “The President first announces his ‘intent to nominate’ a person for a position. That has not happened, for the position.”
In Manila, the U.S. embassy said on Oct. 5 the White House would soon announce Kenney’s nomination, followed by a Senate confirmation hearing.
Early this year, Ambassador Cameron Hume’s name had been submitted and accepted by the Philippines. His name was withdrawn in June, and replaced by Kenney’s.
Previously, Kenney’s overseas postings include the U.S. mission in Geneva as economic counselor, the U.S. embassy in Argentina as economic officer, and the U.S. embassy in Jamaica as consular officer.
In this nation’s capital, she served as director of the State Department Operations Center, a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House, and political-military officer in the Office of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Affairs.
Ambassador Kenney holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve as executive secretary of the State Department. In this post, she headed a 185-person staff responsible for inter-agency policy coordination and crisis management and worked directly for Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright.