Call of change

Man at the Market

Jesse E.L. Bacon II

03/20/2009

While Mrs. Arroyo and her minions are squeezing every ounce of propaganda they can extract from the call made by US President Obama, that call only succeeded in dragging the country into America’s economic and political agenda in the region and thus placed us in harm’s way.

What were the immediate ramifications of the Obama call to the country’s internal concerns? First, it resulted in the 180-degree turn around of Suzette Nicolas or “Nicole,” the Subic rape victim, with her preposterous recantation that she was not in reality raped by US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith as earlier claimed by her. Smith is now serving sentence after he was found guilty of raping Nicolas but under the custody of the US Embassy in Manila while his case is pending appeal.

Recently, however, our Supreme Court (SC) ruled that he is to be confined in a jail facility under the Philippine government’s control and supervision. But the US Embassy kept custody of Smith arguing that under the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) Smith should still be kept by them until his appeal shall have been resolved with finality. This only triggered the call for a review, if not outright abrogation of the VFA.

Secondly, the US authorities would like to have their cake and eat it too. They’d like to keep Smith in their custody but they would like the VFA to stand as it is now for their own economic, political and security interests. Obama’s call to Mrs. Arroyo was compelled by those necessities. How to get away with it but without making a mockery of our own SC with regard to the impasse involving Smith and how to prevent the VFA from being placed in the burner via a review by the Philippine Senate are the things foremost in the mind of Obama.

The recantation of Nicolas from her rape charges against Smith should be viewed in this light. That recantation was compelled by the need to have a legal excuse so that Smith’s case will not come in the way of the VFA. In light of the aggressiveness shown by China in the immediate environs of the Spratlys Islands where many believe lie in its seabed huge deposit of oil, the US needs an ally who would readily allow its territory to be used to advance America’s economic and political interests in the area.

The VFA perfectly fits into this scheme, hence the need for Obama to call Mrs. Arroyo even if earlier in his view she is one of those tyrant political leaders who cling to power through corruption and deceit and who silence dissenters and thus on the wrong side of history. The necessity to promote and protect their own interests forced Obama to deal with Mrs. Arroyo even if in the past he had tried to evade her like the Pharisees did to lepers.

It is this American interest in the region that made Nicolas suddenly realize that she was in fact not raped by Smith and because of her having “seen the light,” she is now an immigrant to the US. That light also made Nicolas see the P100,000, which in reality is peanuts that Smith dangled before her eyes. What was that amount for? Payment for services rendered?

So as it stands now, that single call made by Obama to Mrs. Arroyo magically untangled the legal web as a result of Smith’s rape conviction that only agitated the nation to call for either the review or outright abrogation of the VFA. There will be no more review much more abrogation of this very lopsided agreement. And now America can soundly sleep at night knowing full well that should it decide to engage China in an armed confrontation, the Philippines is there to serve as its launching pad for such military aggression.

This fact made this columnist wonder if the sudden kindness of America to give our dying veterans peanuts for their bravery and gallantry in fighting its war here then abandoned in favor of protecting Australia was in reality aimed at appeasing us so we once more fight their war just in case it becomes necessary. If this is what was in the mind of Obama when he caused the release of our veterans’ long overdue benefits, then he is as scheming and as wily as his predecessor.

And now that Mrs. Arroyo has clearly committed the nation to America’s importuning in the region, the more that we should push for the abrogation, not just review, of the VFA for it only puts us in great danger of being eclipsed again by the conflicting interests of two titans, America and China.

(Reactions to jelbacon@yahoo.com)

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