The Bush administration, apparently playing a knight in shining armor to a damsel in distress in President Arroyo, who has been mired in allegations of cheating, lying and stealing since she took over Malacañang in 2001, has approved a $21-million aid program to combat corruption in the Philippines.
The US Embassy in Manila yesterday said the two-year initiative would strengthen the Ombudsman, a special prosecutor for criminal cases involving government officials, and the Finance department and comes under the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), a US federal agency which hands out development assistance to the Philippines and other “developing” countries.
This must be a joke. It's like giving aid to Marcos' ombudsman and justice department money to "help fight corruption." I hope this money is not used instead to help fund Arroyo's Cha Cha and the so-called "people's initiative", LOL. No department is more undeserving of this kind of money than the one run by "justice" Sec. Raul Gonzales and Merceditas Gutierrez (who covered up for Nani Perez on his hidden bank accounts when the Swiss gov't came a knockin).
September 05, 2003
In his privileged speech Thursday, Sen. Serge Osmeña said the Senate should look into the series of omissions committed by the officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Justice.
He then asked the Senate leadership to refer to the report of the Department of the Public Prosecutor of Switzerland to the Senate committee on government corporation particularly on the failed response of the DFA and the DOJ to its request.
According to Osmena, Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez was quoted as saying that the DOJ would not provide any assistance to the Swiss investigation.
"When we would have thought that any right-thinking God-fearing Filipino prosecutor would have jumped for joy at the gratuitous assistance given by the Swiss, I am absolutely flabbergasted. The Swiss authorities must have been floored. Here is our own justice official obstructing justice in the most arrogant manner," Osmena said.
In addition, Osmena questioned the DFA officials for not informing the Senate about the ongoing Swiss investigation into the Perez bribery case despite having received a copy of the report on April 15.
"The Swiss prosecutor's report was received by the DFA on April this year. In spite of the DFA's knowledge of the ongoing investigation, the Senate was not notified much less given a copy of this report. It was only when the existence of the report was leaked to me that I caused the Senate to issue a subpoena duces tecum to the DFA to furnish the Senate with a copy of the report," Osmena added.
The Swiss government in its report particularly sought the help of the two departments to provide legal assistance especially on the pertinent documents and confirmations on the case.
It will be recalled that Perez was accused of bribery and having secret bank accounts abroad containing deposits obtained from money laundering activities. The report revealed that Perez opened several bank accounts abroad through his wife and some trusted men.
Here's Gutierrez's denial that she's protecting his former boss Nani Perez. Read this too.
So sa mga hindi nakakaalam, sino si Nani Perez? Well, siya ay isang close associate ni GMA, na na-appoint bilang Justice secretary noong 2001 after Edsa Dos. Napaka-partisan niyang DOJ secretary nung panahon na yon (not unlike SiRaulo Gonzales). the guy conducted a smear campaign against the opposition and arroyo's rivals for the 2004 elections, pero siya pala napaka-corrupt rin.
Pati si Dana Dillon of the Heritage foundation, inamin na the US gov't is helping prop up the Arroyo admin.
Haven't they learned anything from their past support for Marcos? We knew the US supported the dictator because it was in the US' interest back then to have an anti-communist presence in the Philippines, and they considered Marcos a "vital ally" to the US' War on Communism.
Now, I'm anti-Communist myself, but shame on the US for helping Marcos stay in power for such a long time at the expense of true democracy (there were presidential elections during Marcos' time too, but they were rigged).
And now the US is once again supporting another dictator-wannabe in Arroyo, because they need a base of operations here in the Philippines for the war against Militant Islam, and think that Arroyo's a "vital ally" to the War on Terrorism.
(Disclosure: I myself supported the intervention in Iraq and the war against terrorism.)
Apparently, the US has thrown the "democracy over stability" talk out the window when it comes to the Philippines, and has decided on a different policy outside the middle east, when nobody is looking. Perceived "stability" is more valued by the US for certain countries and a strongman/strongwoman ruler who they can trust (kahit na illegitimate ba eh) is just as valuable, as long as she doesn't embarass the US too much whenever her administration's abuse becomes too obvious to ignore.
(Don't worry kababayan, hindi lang naman tayo ang may ganitong sitwasyon eh. Sa Pakistan, dictator rin ang sinusuportahan ng US (Musharraf), pero at least pro-WOT siya. Besides, anong magagawa ng US, Pakistan already has the (Sunni) Muslim bomb, and the alternatives to replace Musharraf are Islamists, so no alternatives talaga. That's not true though in the case of the Philippines, where there are many qualified and credible alternatives to arroyo once we hold special elections to replace the cheater.)
Make no mistake about it, this US support for Arroyo will make it harder for us to remove the corrupt and illegitimate administration.
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