Once again, the credibility of this country is tarnished with the last minute postponement of the ASEAN Leaders' Summit.  The sudden decision reverberated all over the world in a negative way, especially when Japanese Economic Minister Akira Amari said he found it difficult to believe that a typhoon could cause the scrapping of such an important international event.  Though Summit organizers insist concerns about typhoon Seniang's onslaught on Cebu was the real reason, many believe Malacañang tried to avoid the spectacle of huge protest rallies against ConAss that would have sidetracked everybody and embarrassed the government no end.

Still others believe it was the discovery of planned terrorist attacks which caused the scrapping of the Summit altogether—which is rather unfortunate because once again it's beginning to appear that we can't get our act together.  Security officials already said the travel advisories issued by the United States, Australia and UK were not true and dismissed them saying they had no intelligence information indicating planned terrorist attacks.  But now it appears that there was really a plot by al-Qaeda linked terrorists to stage bombings.  It took almost a year for preparations to be complete and you'd think we would be able to take care of security concerns after all this time.

I had lunch the other day with the ambassador of a major western country, and the diplomat was astounded and surprised at how we easily postponed such a major event.  In many countries, visits from heads of state to another country are usually planned one year in advance.  Sometimes, the planning can go as far back as two years, way ahead of time.

This sudden cancellation caused a lot of dislocation and disarray on the schedules, not only of the leaders, but all the members of each country's delegation.  All the other ASEAN heads of state—Brunei's Bolkiah, Cambodia's Hun Sen, Indonesia's Yudhoyono, Bouasone Bouphavanh of Laos, Badawi of Malaysia, Gen. Soe Win of Myanmar, Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand's Surayod Chulanont and Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam—plus the leaders from dialog partners Australia, China, New Zealand, Korea, India and Japan had planned their schedules way in advance for the December Summit.

As a matter of fact, one head of state was about to leave when 10 minutes before his departure, he was informed out of the blue that the event was cancelled.  They knew well in advance about the typhoon and they said it was a rather flimsy excuse to cancel a very important international event.

Even if the government pushes through with the Summit in January or February, it doesn't look like there will be any head of state that will attend.  One doesn't just suddenly cancel an international summit.  It's not done in polite society, more so in the world arena.  I didn't realize how bad the postponement was until one of our associates in the United States called me, telling me that the scrapping of the event had really ruined the country's credibility, which was splashed all over the news in the US.

This postponement has really put our credibility down to its lowest—if not almost zero—level.  It's going to be hard to convince the rest of the world that Filipinos know how to stick to their commitments.  Upholding agreements and commitments is very important, no matter how inconvenient they may become later.

Take for instance the Visiting Forces Agreement, a bilateral pact that commits this country and the United States to cooperate on common security interests and reaffirm obligations under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.  Joseph Estrada was one of the senators who voted to kick out the US bases in 1991, but it was during his term as president in 1998 when the VFA was passed.  Erap felt at the time that American assistance was needed to beef up external security and modernize the AFP.  The question of custody regarding US Marine Corporal Daniel Smith puts to test the country's ability to adhere to provisions under the Visiting Forces Agreement.

The United States has pointed out that under the VFA framework, as set in Article V on the subject of Criminal Jurisdiction, the US shall have custody over any of its personnel from the commission of the offense until completion of judicial proceedings.

Likewise, Paragraph 3(d) of Article V says that, "Recognizing the responsibility of the United States military authorities to maintain good order and discipline among their forces, Philippine authorities will, upon request by the United States, waive their primary right to exercise jurisdiction except in cases of particular importance to the Philippines."  Whether right or wrong, government has to abide by the provisions of the VFA.  We have to stick to our obligations under the terms of this agreement.

In his ruling, Judge Pozon said "judicial proceedings" as referred to in Article V, paragraph 6 of the VFA only applies during the judicial proceedings in the trial court—but in the same token also admits that "judicial proceedings as a whole include the appeal on the decision of the trial court."

The issue of custody has to be resolved soon enough because it will definitely affect our relationship with the United States.  It should not be a matter of personal interpretation based on emotional considerations, but based on the ambit of the agreement and what will be best for the national interest.

When government pulled out the Philippine contingent in Iraq, the decision was again based on individual consideration, which brought this country untold ridicule and embarrassment.  We were derided as "the weakest link" in the fight against terror, an unreliable ally.

The United States was so disappointed over the pull out that there was even a threat to deport some Filipino illegals in the US as well as apply some economic sanctions.  Needless to say, we were the butt of many jokes, especially when comedian Jay Leno said, "A new world record has been set in the 100-meter dash.  It was set by Filipino troops fleeing Iraq."

In a global world, treaties and agreements are binding and expected to be honored by contracting parties.  Sadly, this country's reputation and its record for keeping contracts has not been good.  To this day, people still remember the Manila Hotel and PEA-Amari transactions that were reversed by the Supreme Court even after the validity of the contracts have been upheld.  And let's not forget Fraport AG, which is undoubtedly one of the most embarrassing international business contracts that we reneged on.

In a world that's becoming more dependent on a global economy and where cooperation between nations is necessary, we must stop backtracking on commitments and abrogating agreements.  Otherwise, let's just forget about making international commitments.

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