Home > Why should a Filipino have to die to save face for George Bush?
Why should a Filipino have to die to save face for George Bush?
by Open-Publishing - Monday 19 July 20041 comment
In Arroyo saves one man but at what cost?' (17/07) Mark Baker says
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's decision to pull out
the Filiprino troops from Iraq puts "populism ahead of principle".
And Prime Minister John Howard has said "caving in to militants
demands would not give Manila immunity from attack".
Mr. Baker and Mr. Howard fail to mention that the Philippines had
specified an August withdrawal in its original troop deployment
agreement with the USA. And they show no understanding whatsoever of
Philippine political culture.
Since the downfall of the Marcos dictatorshipPeople power’ has
profoundly changed the Filipino psyche. Filipinos will not hesitate
to force their government out of office when faced with a common
cause. As President, Ms. Arroyo knew exactly what she had to do.
The whole nation wanted to save the life of an overseas worker with
eight children. There was tremendous concern about his plight. The
six million overseas Filipino workers are officially
considered `heroes’ of the nation; they bring in A$11 billion a year
and keep the debt-ridden economy afloat.
Filipinos have no illusions that either staying in Iraq or going home
one month early makes them safe from terrorism. Bombings,
kidnappings, political assassinations, armed encounters and ambushes
and summary killings have long been part of life in the Philippines.
But Filipinos were already questioning the soundness of the war on
Iraq. Why shouldn’t they? Many other nations were questioning it.
Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic had gone. No Filipino
wants to see their hapless compatriots made into political targets in
a war that was not of their own making, a war their government was
talked into supporting for utterly wrong reasons.
No Filipino should have to die to save face for George Bush!
Melba Marginson
Centre for Philippine Concerns Australia (Victoria)
Forum posts
20 July 2004, 03:42
The right question for Filipinos to ask about Iraq is what were we doing there in the first place? Iraq, whether under Saddam or anyone, has never, never, ever threatened the Philippines. It’s the tomfoolhardy thing to just tag along with the US, in the hopes it will throw the archipelago some crumbs. Ever since this so-called war on terrorism, what crumbs have fallen the way of the Philippines from the US table? Kellogg, Root and Brown subcontracting Filipino carpenters at $10 per day to build the Guantanamo facilities? Halliburton et al paying $30 a day to 4,000 Filipinos so desperate as to agree to become military servants — cooking, cleaning, doing laundry — that the Philippine government should hang its head in total and absolute shame.