It was with ease that Gilberto Teodoro Jr., in a room full of peers, family friends, and former colleagues in the legislature, breezed through the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) on September 13, 2023, just three months after his appointment.
One after the other, CA members from both chambers of Congress praised the then-returning defense chief and 1989 bar topnotcher. It was only Senator Risa Hontiveros and former senator Cynthia Villar who posed policy questions — about defense capacity and posture, why external threats were now a priority, the Chinese Communist Party’s information and influence operations, and energy extraction from Recto Bank.
“I have to say so far, isa ito sa pinaka-interesante or fulfilling, satisfying na pagtatanong so far sa mga opisyal na humarap sa atin,” said Hontiveros. (This is the most interesting or fulfilling, and satisfying questions fielded before an official who’s come before us.)
In just under an hour, Teodoro’s appointment was endorsed before the CA plenary, officially kicking off his second tour as the country’s top defense official.
The relative speed of the confirmation meant committee members and the CA at large skipped out on an issue that had apparently been flagged, based on a copy of Teodoro’s dossier: his previous Maltese citizenship and questions surrounding its acquisition and renunciation.
