THERE is a need to strengthen the mandating powers of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office in Mindanao, a Davao City councilor said.
Second District Councilor Javi Campos, who heads the committee on international relations, said the present state of DFA-Mindanao is lacking in resources and representational capacities since the supervision of the Passport Extension Offices in Mindanao was reverted to the DFA Office of the Consular Affairs through an Executive Order No. 49 dated October 28, 2017.
“What we have noticed is that there are certain aspects to the current setup that slow things down in carrying out the mandate of DFA-Mindanao. They are lacking personnel and was added mandate,” Campos said.
He said one of DFA-Mindanao’s mandates is to monitor the economic activities here in Mindanao.
This had led Campos in filing a resolution, which was already previously approved on second reading, to address the agency’s problem.
The councilor said the resolution is meant to back the draft executive order that will be forwarded to President Rodrigo Duterte, which will strengthen DFA-Mindanao’s mandating capacity in terms of personnel and budget.
“The resolution that the City Council will be passing is to bring the attention to President Duterte, urging him to sign this proposal,” Campos said.
In Campos’ draft resolution, the issuance of the executive order is necessary to strengthen DFA-Mindanao’s mandate to engage in economic diplomacy functions and advancement of the East Asean Growth Area (EAGA).
He said the order will give “more power and more leeway to go about and fully carry out their mandate”.
“Once DFA-Mindanao will be strengthened, they will be able to work closely in tourism and investment aspect effectively,” he said.
The councilor also said DFA-Mindanao can further help in addressing multilateral communications to other countries in the security aspect.
“DFA Mindanao will be able to help address these problems in coming up with a better way of ranking and assessing risk in Mindanao, as a whole, to improve investment opportunities here,” Campos said.