Obama Should Not Have Met Philippine President

Approximately a day after her final State of the Nation address, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo left Manila to finally meet with US president Barack Obama. It will be recalled by many who have been following this cat-and-mouse game that Obama has snubbed the Philippine president twice before finally agreeing to meet with her this time around. Obama probably has his valid reasons; with the recession in full bloom, meeting with third world country leaders is probably not on his list of priorities.

What makes this particular meeting peculiar is its timing. The meeting comes on the heels of one of the strongest calls for Arroyo to step down before her term ends next year, amidst strong rumors and allegations of corruption, bribery and human rights violations, the worst in a Philippine administration since the time of President Ferdinand Marcos. During her State of the Nation address, thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding she step down immediately. There is also widespread skepticism about her intentions to actually step down next year (her term ends in 2010), as her supporters in the Philippine legislature have been pushing a bill for Charter change (lovingly called “cha-cha”) which, if passed, could change the structure of the Philippine government from a presidential to a parliamentary form, possibly paving the way for Arroyo to stay in power as prime minister.

Moreover, former President Corazon Aquino just passed away last Saturday. It will be remembered that Ms. Aquino was the president who was swept into power through the first bloodless revolution ever in 1986 ,via what is now famously known as People Power. Ms. Aquino was without a doubt a hero to many the world over, but during her term the strong presence of US military forces in the Philippines, established since the 1900’s, was removed in 1991, starting a marked decline in US-Philippine relations.

For almost a century, the US military had use of two major bases in the Philippines, Clark Air Force Base, and Subic Naval Station. The Philippines was the strongest ally of the US in Asia. It took a strong anti-nuclear, anti-imperialist mass movement and a majority vote in the Philippine Senate to finally end the US occupation. Many have posited the theory that Aquino agreed to this to ensure that her term would be popular with the masses, who were supposedly anti-American in nature. In reality, nothing could have been further from the truth. While many hardcore leftists did want the bases out, many others saw it as an unwise, impractical move for the Philippines. With the bases gone, the Philippines was effectively removed from the radar screen of the US. With the economy of the Philippines in dire need of the  continuing aid of the US after the mass plundering by Ferdinand Marcos, this was not a smart move.

Article Author: Clarence Yu

Clarence dislikes the word "blog" but has to live with it. He likes to write about music, film and books when he wants to escape the insanity of life (which is very often). Luckily, his writings have found their way into several on-line publications. …

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