Meanwhile, former Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez has been nominated Philippine ambassador to Turkey with jurisdiction over Georgia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, Hernandez had previously served as ambassador to South Korea. Before then, he was DFA spokesman during the administration of Benigno Aquino III.
Duterte also appointed Edward Fereira as a special envoy of the President to Kazakhstan for six months.
Alex Garcia Chua was nominated ambassador to Kenya with jurisdiction over Burundi, Union of the Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Sudan.
In addition, Chua was named the Philippines' Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Environmental Programme (UNEP) and UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).
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Ambassador Leah Basinang-Ruiz is the first female Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon. She is a career diplomat who has served the Department of Foreign Affairs in various capacities since she passed the Foreign Service Officers Exam in 1986.
Since then, she has served as the Assistant Director then Acting Director of the Office of European Affairs, Acting Director of the Office of ASEAN Affairs, Director of the Office of United Nations and Other International Organizations (UNIO), and Executive Director of UNIO.
Abroad, she has represented the Philippines as the Third Secretary and Vice Consul then Second Secretary and Consul of the Philippine Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand. After her three-year stint in New Zealand, she was cross-posted to the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur as the Second Secretary and Consul, then First Secretary and Consul. She served as the First Secretary and Consul, then Minister and Consul General at the Philippine Embassy in Canberra from 1996 to 2007.
In 2010, served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Philippine Embassy in Berlin. She served as the Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. of the same foreign service post from 2010 until the end of her tour of duty.
Ambassador Basinang-Ruiz obtained her bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from the University of the Philippines, cum laude. She finished her Certificate in Diplomacy from Oxford University and her Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of the Philippines.
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