Babe's Eye View article

Here in the United States, the threat by an al-Qaeda group to bomb the US Embassy and the arrest of three middle-Eastern nationals is just about the only news coming from the Philippines. Americans are more preoccupied with the economy on the brink of a recession, and the heated US primaries with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton neck-to-neck in the race to choose the Democratic Party candidate.

After 11 straight losses, Hillary is back in the game by winning Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. But it's still too close to predict the sure winner, with Michigan and Florida planning to hold a "do-over" after being disqualified for holding the primaries too early. Either way, the Democrats will need the votes of the "super delegates"—which could take the battle all the way till August.

With the Democrats being split, it looks like the Republicans are ahead with John McCain going into high gear after clinching his party's nomination. But McCain's biggest pain is no less than US President George Bush himself, who has become even more unpopular. It's no gain for McCain with Bush more of a pain.

Nevertheless, the 71-year-old senator dutifully paid a visit to Dubya in the White House, in spite of aides warning him that it would be best if he distanced himself from Bush—whose approval ratings have hit rock bottom with the Iraq War being the biggest issue against him.

His British best friend Tony Blair was already a casualty, and many Americans are relieved he has less than a year left in the White House. In fact, if elections were held today, either Obama or Clinton would win against any Republican candidate according to a Washington Post-ABC News survey.

The war in Iraq will be the biggest issue against Republicans, with dead American soldiers now numbering close to 4,000. Emotions have become so bitter that two towns in Vermont indicted Bush for "crimes against the Constitution," particularly in relation to the conflict in Iraq.

Despite Bush's negative approval rating, Americans are not out on the streets calling for his resignation or his ouster. Instead, they're patiently waiting for the November elections to make their sentiments known and their voices heard. That's an obvious big difference between the US and the Philippines. They have a system that has matured all these years with their Constitution going through several amendments until they got "the right mix," as one reader emailed, making their country "survive even a Dubya."

When Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, his popularity and trust ratings suffered a big dip. Yet the process was not aborted, in spite of the fact that most Americans wanted Clinton impeached. Americans have displayed a mature kind of democracy—which becomes even more apparent during elections. Nevertheless, American politics could also turn nasty and personal, with the Democratic frontrunners accusing each other of "negative campaigning" and "search and destroy" tactics.

Many Filipino-Americans, however, believe Hillary Clinton would be a better president as far as the Philippines is concerned. She is already familiar with Filipinos, having traveled to the Philippines with Bill Clinton in 1996, where they stayed at the historic MacArthur suite of the Manila Hotel—with the hotel management frantically making the bed a couple of inches longer because the former president was just too tall.

Hillary also gets a lot of briefings from Filipino-American friends like Marilou Mabilangan-Haley, sister of former Philippine Ambassador to the UN Philip Mabilangan. Outside of that, the White House physician during the Clinton days was Dr. Connie Mariano, a Filipina who was also a top-ranking officer of the US Navy. Currently, there are 29 Filipino-Americans working at the White House, with the executive chef being Cristeta Comerford, the first female to be appointed to the position.

While pundits have earlier ruled out Hillary's candidacy, the former First Lady pulled another surprise comeback, much like Bill "The Comeback Kid" did when he revived his run by finishing a surprise second in New Hampshire during the 1992 primaries, going all the way to the presidency. On the other hand, controversies hound Barack Obama's campaign, like the issue of NAFTA and Tony Rezko, a known political fixer who was Obama's fundraiser.

Like the Philippines, corruption has also become an issue in the US, obviously since a candidate needs a huge campaign fund to run. Television ads alone require millions of dollars to produce and air, plus money for logistics and mobilization of supporters. However, the US has strict laws limiting campaign contributions, requiring public disclosure on the source of funds and how they were used.

We are really light years away from the US in terms of political maturity, mainly because we lack the resources to achieve the kind of democracy they have. Federal funding is available for qualified candidates, from the presidential primaries all the way to the general elections, like John McCain who has access to $85 million public financing. In the Philippines, a presidential candidate needs at least P3 billion to run, and quite obviously, most of the money will come from contributions—some from dubious sources.

This is where corruption begins, and it does not end there with contributors wanting a return on their "investment" and more. Aside from being popular, a candidate needs a lot of money to win—with a percentage of the funds set aside to counter what they call "moderate cheating." But nowadays, we no longer know if it's just "moderate cheating" or "moderate greed" because corruption in the Philippines has become extremely expensive.

Until we see the light that we need to change the way our system works, we will forever be light years away from becoming a mature democracy.