REPRESENTATIVE (Cebu City, south district) Antonio Cuenco has been appointed as the Secretary-General of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Permanent Secretariat.
“I am greatly honored and will do my best to promote closer and more productive relations among lawmakers of Asia. This is a big job but with strong determination we will do it,” Cuenco said.
House Speaker Prospero Nograles appointed Cuenco, who is also the House Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, to the position.
“I personally took the pleasure of nominating the Hon. Cuenco because of his expertise on AIPA matters,” Nograles said.
Cuenco has been a delegate to the AIPA General Assemblies since 1988.
He will stay as the Secretary-General for three years.
“We will continue to push for a multilateral extradition treaty in the Asean region for drug traffickers and establish an Asean parliament,” Cuenco said.
Cuenco has passed a bill addressing the drug problem in the country and participated during the House inquiry on the infamous Alabang Boys incident.
Cuenco’s appointment as AIPA Permanent Secretariat leadership was a result of a discussion between Nograles and Hon. Nguyen Van Son, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and General Secretary of the AIPA last January 13 and 15, 2010.
“Cuenco is a consummate parliamentarian and a parliamentarian diplomat committed to the practice of inter-parliamentary diplomacy as a tool for promoting peace, security and economic development in the ASEAN region,” Nograles said of Cuenco. (Angela Casauay/Sunnex)