MANILA, 25 July 2004 — Security officials yesterday said the government will review the country’s policy toward the United States amid criticisms by American officials over President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s decision to pull out the 51-soldier Philippine contingent from Iraq.
A Malaca?ang official said the top-level Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security will meet next week to evaluate the effects of the pullout, which US officials have used to described the Philippines as an unreliable ally.
“There will be discussions on our policy with the US because recently the US has been coming up with (critical) statements,” National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said in a phone interview.
Gonzales said he and Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita raised the need for the review also in view of changing world realities.
“The world is changing. The character of the conflict in Iraq is changing. Our policy should be premised on our national interest and not on the interest of the US,” Gonzales said.
He said the Philippines must also take into consideration its relations with countries in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and other regions.
Gonzales said the negative statements made by US officials on President Arroyo’s decision to withdraw the Filipino troops was understandable. “What we did was not to their interest,” he said.
Aside from the US, the Australian and Iraqi governments also opposed the Philippine decision to withdraw its troops.
But presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government remained confident that “our allies will eventually appreciate the unique Philippine experience and situation that impelled us to withdraw our contingent.”
“We believe that the just decision of the Filipino people will be accepted by the rest f the world just as we respect the decisions of all sovereign nations and peoples,” Bunye said.
Arroyo, in her foreign policy speech on Friday, said she took into consideration the 1.5 million Overseas Filipino Workers in the Middle East, 4,000 of whom are in Iraq, when she decided to withdraw the Philippine contingent ahead of the scheduled Aug. 20 pullout.
Iraqi militants had threatened to behead dela Cruz if the Philippines did not pull out its troops by July 20.
Arroyo gave in to their demand and the troops left Iraq a month early, resulting in the release of dela Cruz who returned home to a hero’s welcome on Thursday.
The US and Australia assailed Arroyo’s decision, saying she had given in to terrorism and encouraged further attacks on Filipinos in Iraq. “Even the most stable international relationships can follow divergent paths at a certain point, but these paths always meet again. We travel along the same road of democracy and share the same burden of global security,” Bunye said in a statement.
Senator Joker Arroyo said yesterday the US’ harsh rebuke of the Philippines over its decision should prod the government to pursue the country’s interests on its own.
“The Angelo dela Cruz affair should be an abject lesson for us. We can keep on pleasing the Americans a hundred times to gain their favor, but displease them even once and they can be so unforgiving,” Arroyo said in a phone interview. “We should decide things for ourselves.”
Sen. Manuel Villar, meanwhile, lauded the decision of Saudi Arabia to ban unfair labor practices following reports that foreign workers were abused and exploited in the kingdom.
Saudi Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi has issued a new decree that bans all forms of trading in people, including the sale of working visas, according to Villar.
Villar, chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations, said that Saudi Arabia’s new decree should serve as a warning to abusive employers.
“Let us hope that law enforcers in Saudi Arabia would be able to implement the new rule and abusive employers would be punished,” he said in a statement.
Relocation
As this developed, Gonzales called for the immediate “relocation” of the 4,000 Filipino workers in Iraq to ensure their safety.
“I think the situation there is very, very bad. It is very dangerous for our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers),” said Gonzales.
He said the OFWs were better off working in other countries in the Middle East such as Kuwait and Jordan. “Let us not enter Iraq for the meantime,” Gonzales said.
But he lamented that some OFWs insist on working in Iraq despite the high risk.
Ermita yesterday also urged Filipino truck drivers to learn a lesson from dela Cruz.
Ermita said they knew of the high pay being offered by the US government to foreign drivers, but said the government’s concern was more on the safety of its citizens working overseas, more than a million of whom are in the Middle East.
“Think of this very carefully. They should consider that they may end up like Angelo dela Cruz,” he said.
Dela Cruz was a truck driver based in Riyadh, but who moved to Iraq because of the better offer.
Arroyo’s special envoy to the Middle East, Roy Cimatu, has warned that while dela Cruz is now safe from harm, many more truck drivers were placing themselves in danger by insisting on going to Iraq.
Ermita said 10 other Filipino truck drivers had already been threatened by Iraqi rebels, but were rescued by combined US and Iraqi government forces.
Ermita refused to categorically say, however, if Manila will adopt the same policy it used in dela Cruz’s case if other Filipinos are kidnapped in war-torn Iraq. “Let’s cross the bridge when it happens.”
Arroyo, however, has warned that it “will not always be the case,” implying that the government may not give in to terrorists’ demands the next time. She stood firm that the Philippines did the right thing, and that other nations would understand.
“It won’t take more than three lines to summarize my case and let me say them. One, I take full responsibility. Two, I make no apologies. And three, I stuck to my oath. I trust that our allies will come to understand that we are in a special circumstance,” she said.
Remittances worth billions of dollars from more than seven million Filipinos working abroad keep the Philippine economy afloat.
