Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano is a Filipino politician who currently serves as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and prior thereto, from 2007 to 2017, served as a Senator of the Philippines
On May 10, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Cayetano was appointed as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, following the expiration of the one-year appointment ban on losing candidates of the 2016 elections.[6] Cayetano replaced acting secretary Enrique Manalo, who assumed the post in March 2017 when the Commission on Appointments's (CA) rejected President Duterte's ad interim appointment of Perfecto Yasay Jr. due to the latter's citizenship concerns.[7]
His appointment to the post by President Duterte was approved by the CA's foreign affairs committee on May 17, 2017. Upon approval of the CA's plenary, he will assume the post as foreign secretary and effectively resign from his post as senator.[8] On May 18, Cayetano was sworn in by President Duterte at the Malacañang of the South in Davao City.[9]
As Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Cayetano plans an "objective-based" approach in resolving the territorial disputes of the Philippines, which he describes as negotiation through the use of historical facts, such as the Treaty of Paris of 1898 and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to defend the Philippines' claims.[10] He also vowed to avoid "microphone diplomacy", which he describes as the continual issuing of public statements instead of privately negotiating the issues with the parties.[11]
