AWSJ: Arroyo, the weakest leader in the region

I agree with everything the article has to say:

President Arroyo is at this time not only Southeast Asia's top lameduck but is also one who bites the hand of the United States that feeds her with bilateral aid.

This double whammy of a scathing portrayal of the Philippine Chief Executive was recently dealt by the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ), delivering the blows through an opinion piece written by Dana Dillon, a senior policy analyst with the conservative American think tank The Heritage Foundation based in Washington, D.C. Dillon noted that over the last few months, Mrs. Arroyo “has allowed Iraqi terrorists to determine the location, mission and staying power of her nation's military commitments.''

And, he said, she “has acceded to China's expansionist plans in the South China Sea,'' apparently referring to an also recently announced joint project of Manila and Beijing for a seismic exploration of the Spratly chain of islands that is being disputed by the Philippines and China as well as Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

But, the senior analyst also noted, Mrs. Arroyo “has also accepted nearly $100 million a year in military, development and food aid from the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks, at the same time working against American interests on a variety of issues.''

Sarcastically, Dillon called the Philippine President “(some) ally.''

He warned that “(the) longer (the Arroyo) administration makes foreign policy for the Philippines, the more it seems that threats from terrorists and regional bullies influence her, more than diplomatic and financial aid from Manila's friends and allies.''

Citing Mrs. Arroyo's flip-flopping ways, the analyst said “(on) question after question, she has changed policies to put her and her erstwhile allies into weaker positions.''

Thus, he added, “(at) this point, she must be considered the weakest leader in the region,'' referring to Southeast Asia.

Dillon recalled Mrs. Arroyo's moves that led to her fall from grace with the Bush administration, which had honored her with the tag of being Washington's major non-Nato ally in the region.

When Iraqi militants kidnapped a Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, he said, Manila negotiated with the Iraqi terrorists and struck a deal to have De la Cruz freed in less than three weeks.

As a result of the deal, according to Dillon, the Philippine government pulled out its troops from Iraq, and Mrs. Arroyo “claimed a significant political victory.''

“This lightning-fast and irresponsible capitulation to terrorists stands in stark contrast to (her) actions when Americans are held hostage in her own country. In August 2000, Abu Sayyaf Moslem extremists in the southern islands of the Philippines kidnapped a 24-year-old American, Jeffrey Schilling. During the nearly nine-month confinement of Mr. Schilling, then Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes made his government's intention clear with regard to its policy regarding terrorists. 'We do not negotiate,' he said at the time. 'We will never “negotiate with terrorists,'” the senior policy analyst quoted Reyes as saying.

This policy, according to Dillon, also held true when two American missionaries, Gracia and Martin Burnham, were kidnapped off the Palawan in the Philippines in 2001 and held hostage for more than a year by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.

Negotiations with the terrorists were never an option, he said, and it was not until a confrontation between the Philippine military and the Abu Sayyaf that Gracia was freed. Martin died during rescue operations by the Philippine police and military.

But never (underscoring his) doesn't seem to last long in Manila, Dillon rued as “Iraqi insurgents and terrorists aren't the only bullies who push Mrs. Arroyo around.''

“She's an equal-opportunity weakling. In recent days, she traveled to Beijing to sign an agreement with China to jointly explore for oil and gas inside the Philippine maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea,'' he said.

The six countries contest their territorial claims to the Spratlys, “sometimes hotly.''

Among them, China's claims are easily the most immoderate.

The Chinese unofficially claim the entire sea from China to Indonesia as territorial waters.

In 1995, the Chinese military occupied Mischief Reef and claimed it as historical Chinese territory.

The reef, adjacent to the Philippines and well within Manila's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, is 1,000 miles from China's mainland.

Until the Arroyo administration, Dillon said, Manila had been at the heart of efforts by Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to align its member-countries in a common stance against Chinese “expansion'' into the South China Sea.

In 1999, Manila helped draft an Asean proposal for a Common Code of Conduct in the South China Sea and in January 2000, a Philippine diplomat showed photographs to the foreign ministers of other Asean countries of the “hugely expanding'' Chinese installations on Mischief Reef, with Asean responding with a call for Chinese “restraint and strict observance of international law.''

Dillon mocked Mrs. Arroyo's populist approach to policy-making, saying she “would rather appease than confront,'' which could result in the carpet being pulled from right under her feet.

“Her administration claims its agreement with China does not constitute a surrender of sovereignty over a potentially sensitive area near the Philippines' coast. But don't hold your breath waiting for news that the Philippines will benefit from any joint exploration near China's coast or EEZ. The agreement is not reciprocal,'' the senior political analyst disclosed.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Dillon said, the United States has been particularly attentive to the needs of the Philippines government. Washington views Manila as a valuable ally on the front lines of the war against terrorism and even has lent logistical and other direct military support to the Philippines in its fight against the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants.

He questioned the wisdom of thee US Congress considering to increase funding to the Philippines to $130 million next year.

“For what? More weak-kneed appeasement? We've seen where that gets us — Mrs. Arroyo's surrender to terrorists encouraged a spate of kidnapping in Iraq, eventually forcing (her) to impose a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq, and the (Spratlys) pact with China almost certainly will embolden Beijing to pressure other Asean capitals to compromise their claims in the South China Sea,'' Dillon said.

“How about making funding contingent on a little common sense on the part of the Arroyo administration? If the US is going to be generous with an ally, why not insist that government at least not act against (underscoring again his) American interests and those of the US' other friends in the region? How about a mutual agreement? No negotiations with terrorists, no deal with bullies,'' he added.