Section 14September 19, 1991, Sec./Art. 14

Initial Appointment of Foreign Service Officers. – Consistent with the goal of developing and strengthening the Career Foreign Service Corps, recruitment into the ranks of foreign service officers shall be exclusively through open competitive examinations to determine the competence, fitness and aptitude of candidates for foreign service work. No person shall be eligible for appointment as a foreign service officers unless he has passed these examinations and demonstrated his loyalty to the Republic of the Philippines and adheres to the principles of the Constitution. The President shall extend initial appointments of foreign service officers exclusively from the list submitted by the Secretary containing the names of those who passed the examinations.

Such initial appointments shall be to the lowest rank of foreign service officer, class IV. Any person who, after having passed the examinations, declines to accept an initial appointment as foreign service officer within a period of one (1) year from the date of he was offered the appointment shall be required to take and pass examinations again in order to be eligible for an initial appointment.

All appointments of foreign service officers shall be to a class and to not to a particular post.