And take note, the US State Department met with opposition leaders Tatad and Angara recently. Interesting.
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush has stopped taking calls from President Arroyo and will most likely avoid any bilateral meeting with her during the APEC summit in Chile in November,
"Her (Arroyo's) calls to the White House are no longer returned, and she would like to meet with President Bush in Santiago Chile. But I'm not going to bet my mortgage on that taking place," an official said.
Another official said the US government was clearly disappointed over the May election which was described as worse than that in Indonesia and seen as not having advanced the cause of democracy in the country.
Several officials and groups from the Philippines arrived here last week to lobby for US support for their causes.
Among them were Trade Secretary Cesar Purisima, Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong and Banglo Sentral Gov. Rafael Buenaventura, for a World Bank-IMF meeting; a Mindanao group led by former Rep. Mike Mastura; the opposition group Christian Nationalist Union led by former budget secretary Salvador Enriquez and former Sen. Francisco S. Tatad, and Sen. Edgardo Angara and some congressmen.
The Mastura group made presentations on the peace process in Mindanao. The CNU group met with key political leaders and State Department officials.
Highly-placed US officials were reported to have assured these groups that the US government would continue the maintain close and friendly ties with the Philippines but would have increasingly have little to do with to do with the Arroyo administration.
The official who told about Arroyo's unanswered calls said the US would make a clear distinction between the Filipinos and Mrs. Arroyo.
He said US assistance and grants would no longer be channeled through the government, but through non-government organizations. "This is the only way to avoid corruption," the official said.
The official agreed with the CNU group that a total meltdown could occur in the Philippines, unless drastic measures were undertaken to reverse the trend.
"The economy is a alarming, the balance of payments does not look good at all," one official said.
The official expressed concern about the Arroyo government's apparent decision to increase tariffs while trying to attract more trade with external partners, and its inability to collect taxes.
Tax collection efficiency is still the lowest in Southeast Asia.
US-based Filipinos and Filipino Americans have tended to share the dim outlook on the Philippines.
At an awards dinner for Filipinos and Filipino-Americans at the National Press Club, which honored three awardees last week, the Pulitzer-winning Filipino-American photojournalist Sheryl Diaz Meyers said she noticed a serious crisis of confidence and lack of direction in the Philippines the last time she visited there.
Filipino-Americans based here expressed concern over the frosty relations between the Arroyo and the Bush administrations. Washington's reported cold-shoulder treatment on the Arroyo administration is one of the major concerns of gatherings of Filipino-American business and civic leaders here.
A California-based Filipino businessman said: "It appears that Mrs. Arroyo has become the country's real problem and any solution to the crisis must begin with her."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment