July 18, 2004

The Philippine STAR, Opinion Page

This Quick-Fix Solution

Will Cost Us More

By Babe Romualdez

There is no question that withdrawing our small contingent from Iraq was a very difficult decision for the government to make, especially when it concerns Filipino lives, particularly an OFW who sacrifices so much to support his family.  But it was always made clear to all OFWs from the very beginning that working in the Middle East was extremely .dangerous. 

Nonetheless, the short-sighted, quick-fix solution that we just did will cost us more in the long-term, not only internationally, but also locally.  We just made ourselves more vulnerable by choosing a path that is less honorable.  We can now expect terrorism to increase and invite more kidnappings of Filipinos.  

Worse, other nationals will be more at risk than ever.  We have now become the weakest link in the fight against terrorism.  GMA's decision will have far-reaching consequences for the country and ultimately, for herself.  

A US military officer was dumbfounded and puzzled on why we haven't learned from our dealings with the Abu Sayyaf Gang (ASG).  Because of the ASG, our international image suffered and we lost billions of dollars in investment opportunities and tourism.  What is unbelievable is we have set ourselves up to go through that vicious cycle again. 

This time around, we can only rely on ourselves because our soon-to-be-former allies would have learned the risky lesson of dealing with Filipinos.  Our quick-fix pattern has to stop, if we recall, the government allowed Libya to pay ransom in order to resolve the ASG's Sipadan Island kidnappings.  Shortly after, the emboldened ASG became even greedier in the Dos Palmas kidnappings where individual ransom payments were allowed to be made by wealthy victims and aggravated by military corruption. 

The US military was then forced to save its own citizens under the guise of the Visiting Forces Agreement.  In addition to that, the resurgence of kidnapping of the Filipino-Chinese in the early 1990s, which allowed victims' families to pay up, resulted in the phenomenal growth of the kidnapping industry rivaled only by the illegal drugs industry.  This is the image we have projected to the world.  

Today, Australian Prime Minister John Howard rightly warned that this kind of mentality will not buy us immunity, but it will only make things worse.  The unforeseen consequence of GMA's decision is that we now have the dubious honor of being the lone member of the "Coalition of the Willing to Pay."

The other day, Philippine STAR columnist Boo Chanco wrote that it should have been obvious to this administration that the Angelo de la Cruz hostage case had been a crisis waiting to happen because of the kidnappings of the Japanese and the Koreans.  He added that GMA should have appointed a crisis manager to prepare for that eventuality by generating scenarios and corresponding responses in order to avoid the fumble of giving in. 

Finally, he wrote that we should have learned from the Flor Contemplacion experience, but we obviously did not.  Since that time, our foreign policy has been ad hoc and murky.  Mercenary at best.  

An American friend who was against the Iraq invasion from the very start told me that it would have been fine if the country did not join the coalition of the willing.  "You shouldn't have joined it in the first place.  Now the Philippines looks like a nation of wimps," he stressed. 

Even internationally-popular stand-up comedian Jay Leno made fun of the Filipino troops when he said, "A new world record has been set for the 100-meter dash.  It was set by Filipino troops fleeing Iraq."  Many Filipino-Americans were ashamed of what we did. 

Local surveys though show that Filipinos are almost evenly divided over the decision to withdraw, but many showed awareness of the consequences of this decision.  The Left and a good number of clouded minds said that we have finally broken free from the American sphere of influence.  But the fact of the matter is our dependence on the United States continues even after fifty-eight years since they officially lowered the Stars and Stripes.

Last Thursday, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Narcing Abaya told us at the Manila Overseas Press Club forum that 90 percent of our military hardware and training come from the US.  After the visit of President George W. Bush last year, the military never had it so good since the bases were kicked out in 1991. 

It was a good and practical decision for GMA to join the coalition because the. Philippines gained a total of $808.2 M worth of assistance and investments from President George W. Bush in 2003.  Of the total US assistance, 12 percent went to defense.  US security assistance has steadily risen from $23.43 M in 2001 to $93.5 M in 2002 to $114.46 M in 2003. 

This goodwill has taken the form of more guns, helicopters, trucks, fighter-bombers, radio sets, effective counter-terrorism operations and training for the AFP, and our designation as a Major Non-NATO Ally.  We probably would have blown all of that away. 

Our post-war dependence can be traced to the time Gen. Douglas MacArthur took it upon himself to chart the destinies of Philippines and Japan in his role as American Caesar.  In the book, In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines, Stanley Karnow wrote that Gen. Douglas MacArthur was nothing less than superhuman to the Filipinos.  Because he vowed, "I Shall Return" and fulfilled it.  We look upon him and the Americans as saviors and liberators. 

As such, the Americans have that kind of spellbinding influence over us.  The ties that bind--culture, military doctrine and training, trade and investments, and economic assistance—have endured.  Fortunately or unfortunately for us, the Americans have always been part of our national equation.

When the diplomatic dust finally settles, the decision to withdraw will show the disadvantages of the parochial mentality that dominates our foreign policy-making.  With those darkened and dense lenses, the government missed the big point.  It is a mistake for most people to think that GMA acted out of national interest.  

Our real national interest lies not in strengthening terrorism, but in helping the coalition weaken terrorism, symbolically and in deed.  Getting out of the US-led coalition is not the point.  The point is we have our own brand of terrorism to fight locally and with the decision to pullout from Iraq, we have just added fuel to the fire. 

The sad part of becoming the weakest link in the coalition is that our standing in the community of nations has been greatly diminished.  Worse, at this early stage of her new term, GMA's leadership is now being put to question by the international community.  Not only does inconsistency have a steep price, it has hidden costs. Ultimately, this quick-fix solution to the Angelo de la Cruz crisis will have far greater consequences than we can ever imagine.

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