PRESIDENT Arroyo has appointed former Senator Orlando Mercado as the Philippines? permanent representative to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and nine months after the Commission on Appointments sat on his nomination as ambassador to China.

Mrs. Arroyo swore him in at the Palace yesterday after withdrawing his earlier appointment as top envoy to Beijing.

Mercado?s appointment no longer required the commission?s approval because he was not being assigned to a country but to an international organization, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

?His case is similar to those of Ambassadors [Hilario] Davide and [Manuel] Teehankee, who were appointed permanent representatives to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, respectively,? Ermita said.

Mercado?s appointment makes the Philippines the fifth Asean member-state to assign a permanent representative to the regional grouping, after Vietnam, Laos and Singapore.

Mercado had previously served as president and chief executive of the state-run television network RPN-9.

He also served as senator for two terms before being appointed by former President Joseph Estrada as his defense secretary in 1999. He ran for a third term at the Senate in 2004 but lost.

Ermita said the President had nominated former Office of External Affairs executive director Antonio Albano to replace Mercado as president of RPN-9. Joyce Pangco Pa?ares