This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com).
Vol. VI, No. 48,
Jan. 7-13, 2006
Caving in to U.S. Bullying
This incident is once more threatening to blow up in Mrs. Arroyo’s face revealing just how shaky her regime is and how fearful it is of losing the backing of the U.S. That is the real meaning of “strategic RP-U.S. relations” for this client regime - as it has been for those that preceded it.
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo
Streetwise*
Posted by Bulatlat
On top of everything else – the lying, stealing, cheating and murdering spree
against those her regime has demonized as “enemies of the state” – Mrs. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo today takes the cake as super toady to the Superpower bully,
the United States of America. In the process she has managed to stir up latent
nationalist sentiments that have been all but smothered by ubiquitous propaganda
about “globalization” and the hype about a borderless “war against terrorism”
fought with the mighty US war machine.
By authorizing the hasty, clandestine and deceitful transfer of convicted rapist
Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to the custody of the US government by means of his
illegal, non-court authorized release (prosecution lawyers have categorically
labeled it as an assisted escape of a convicted felon) from detention in the
Makati City Jail and delivery to the U.S. Embassy, Mrs. Arroyo has proven that
she is indeed the U.S. puppet repeatedly condemned in countless protest rallies
and demonstrations.
Why does Mrs. Arroyo’s belated admission that it was her decision to get the
convicted American soldier out of a Philippine jail and her plea for
“understanding” sound pretty much like her "I'm sorry" spiel after being caught
red-handed engaging in wholesale electoral fraud? Why are we reminded all over
again of her emotional "I will not run (for president)" speech, a promise she
promptly abandoned after manufacturing a spurious groundswell of support as well
as allegedly receiving divine inspiration to run anyway?
There are three reasons: first, is the familiar ring of insincerity; two, the
blatant lying about the grounds for her highly questionable and legally
untenable actions; and third, the thinly-veiled attempt to assuage an enraged
populace whose reaction to this latest atrocity, Malacanang has
obviously underestimated.
This time Mrs. Arroyo’s offense -- or rather, offenses -- is much, much worse.
She used her high office to undermine the rule of law, undercut the judicial
process as well as surrender national sovereignty to a foreign power.
It was bad enough that her government did little to help, or more accurately,
helped to sabotage the fight of the Subic rape victim, Nicole, to attain justice
by way of the damaging pronouncements and decisions of the Justice Secretary and
his deliberately bungling set of public prosecutors. Furthermore, the executive
department automatically and consistently concurred with the U.S. interpretation
of the RP-U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) provisions on criminal
jurisdiction that clearly favored the accused U.S. marine over the Filipina rape
victim. The Arroyo regime, in fact, lawyered for the U.S. government (and,
effectively, the accused U.S. soldiers) on the issue of custody from day 1 of
the commission of the crime.
With the unmistakable show of U.S. displeasure as expressed in U.S. President
George Bush’s pronouncement and the abrupt and unilateral cancellation of the
annual RP-U.S. joint war exercises known as Balikatan as well as humanitarian
assistance to typhoon-ravaged areas, the Arroyo regime literally caved in. It
did the unthinkable – gross, ill-disguised flouting of the independence of the
judiciary and grave abuse of authority – in springing Smith from his Makati
prison and delivering him to the U.S. embassy in true-blue lackey fashion.
The Arroyo administration could not wait for the legal fig leaf of a court order
when it failed to get a favorable ruling from RTC Judge Pozon, who had earlier
found Mr. Smith guilty, sentenced him to 40 years imprisonment and ordered his
temporary incarceration in the Makati city jail until the court decides
otherwise, pending diplomatic negotiations between the Philippines
and the U.S. as to what detention facility, on Philippine territory, would be
used to jail the convict. Failure as well to get a Temporary Restraining Order
from the Court of Appeals on Judge Pozon’s order to retain custody over Mr.
Smith by incarcerating him in a Philippine jail apparently caused alarm on the
part of both Malacanang and the U.S. authorities.
Thus the legal cover used by Mrs. Arroyo’s hatchet men amounted to nothing more
than the U.S. position that the VFA grants it custody of its erring soldiers no
matter that the crime committed is a heinous one under Philippine laws, it had
nothing to do with Mr. Smith’s duties as a member of the U.S. military, and he
was, in fact, off duty when he committed the rape. In the guise of fidelity to
its obligations under the VFA, the Arroyo regime attempts now to cover-up its
latest impeachable crimes.
This incident is once more threatening to blow up in Mrs. Arroyo’s face
revealing just how shaky her regime is and how fearful it is of losing the
backing of the U.S. That is the real meaning of “strategic RP-U.S. relations”
for this client regime as it has been for those that preceded it. (The last time
this same line was invoked was during the Senate debates on the renewal of the
RP-U.S. Bases Agreement when then President Corazon Aquino even led a street
march to the Senate to dramatize her support for the bases’ continued stay and
thus endeared her to U.S. policymakers.)
On the part of the U.S., it exposes the narrow and aggressive mindset of the
current neoconservative leadership of the lone Superpower, used to getting its
way unchecked by international law and international public opinion. It also
reveals just how much respect the U.S. political leadership has for the dignity
and independence of its former colony, now reduced to nothing more, it appears,
than disdain for a current neocolony, a vassal state of the Big White Father.
The Balikatan war exercises are certainly a critical part of U.S. military
strategy – having to do with the continuous deployment of U.S. forces and
materiel in key regions so as to ensure military readiness and maneuverability
in exercising its hegemony. Is the decision to cancel it a measure of its
concern for its troops? We think not.
The U.S. makes clear that it doesn’t want another bad precedent of a client
state (aka “ally”) reneging or failing to implement lop-sided military
agreements that protect U.S. interests and not get punished for it. The U.S.
clearly twisted the arm of the Arroyo regime and got what it wanted. Of course
U.S. spokespersons maintained the propaganda line that this was about
implementing the VFA; that this was about protecting its troops. In truth it is
about the U.S. having its way in complete disregard of a sovereign country’s
justice system and sovereignty and delivering that message loud and clear to the
entire world.
U.S. imperialist objectives are of course so much easier to achieve when it
deals with a subservient government desperate to cling to power like that of
Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Posted by Bulatlat
*Published in Business World
5-6 January 2007
© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.