Heritage view a ‘wake-up call’ for GMA, says diplomat

March 17, 2008

A senior Philippine diplomat yesterday said the opinions of respected foreign institutions such as the US think-tank Heritage Foundation on corruption in the Philippines should serve as a “wake up call” for President Arroyo.

The diplomat, who asked not to be named, also said the international community’s negative views and other criticisms of Mrs. Arroyo’s leadership style are hurting the Philippines’ image abroad.

“Their (Heritage Foundation) opinions matter. We can not simply disregard it and pretend that we are not being criticized. This is an influential organization and they have been known over the years to have shaped public opinion,” the source said.

On March 14, Heritage Foundation’s Walter Lohman said blatant corruption in the Philippine government, the telecommunications scandal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp. and the ongoing seismic undertaking entered into by Manila with China and Vietnam should be a cause for serious concern for Washington.

The Spratlys, a cluster of islands, shoals, islets, cays and reefs along the South China Sea, is said to be harboring rich minerals and oil reserves. It is claimed in part or in whole by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.

In an analysis, Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, said the

recent scandals rocking the Arroyo administration has driven Philippine politics “off the rails” and suggested that Washington should help avoid a potential constitutional crisis.

Lohman noted that the $329-million contract with ZTE, an allegedly overpriced deal that will provide the government a national broadband network, “is a result of a new, shameless level of corruption.”

No less than President Arroyo, her husband and close political allies reportedly received millions of dollars worth of bribes from the Chinese firm, according to witnesses who testified before the Senate hearings. ZTE denied engaging in any unlawful dealings with the government.

But Lohman stressed that the most spectacular charge to emerge from the controversy is that the contract flows from a 2004 China–Philippines deal to put aside sovereignty claims in the South China Sea in order to conduct a joint seismic study.

The Philippine official should not take offense at such criticisms.

“Why would she be offended? If she had been doing well, she wouldn’t get the flak from the international community,” the diplomat-source said.

According to Lohman, the economic costs of corruption in the country are “well documented,” adding that what is alarming about these cases is the possibility that “corruption in the Philippines may have reached the point of trumping national interest.”

“The United States should hold up a mirror to the Philippines. The US does its Filipino friends no good by pretending corruption is any less than a cancer eating away at its body politic,” he said.

Predictably, Malacañang yesterday belittled the opinion expressed by the Heritage Foundation on blatant corruption in the Philippine government that should be a cause for serious concern for Washington.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, in dismissing the Heritage Foundation’s negative remarks, used as basis the past statement of US ambassador to Manila Kristie Kenney that such controversies will not affect the relationship between the Philippines and the US.

Bunye also hinted that the assurance of the US embassy carries more weight as far as Malacañang is concerned.

“As far as we know, this alleged effect on the US government has been denied by the US ambassador herself and I guess that’s a reasonable stand to make. We agree with the stand of the US ambassador that this has not affected our relations,” Bunye said.

The Palace failed to give a categorical reply to the Heritage Foundation’ statement.

Lohman said: “Who exactly is accountable is the devil buried in the details. Suspicions and investigations have converged on President Arroyo’s husband and a few key officials.”

Lohman also lamented the occurrence of high level corruption “in a democratic country like the Philippines.That the intersection of business and politics in the Philippines is rife with corruption is hardly a revelation,” he said. “Neither is it extraordinary by the standards of current practices in Asia. What is troubling, however, “perhaps only because, unlike corrupt dealings in other countries, it takes place within a lively, often raucous democracy,” which is “the way corruption has come to thoroughly dominate public discourse.”

Detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes charged that the Arroyo government signed the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) in exchange for projects with China amounting to $4-billion, which include, among others the controversial national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp., the Education Department’s Cyber-Education project, and the North and South Rail projects. All these projects are said to be overpriced.

He accused Mrs. Arroyo of committing treason for approving the deal, but Malacañang maintained the agreement is legal and constitutional.

Trillanes argued that the government’s participation in the JMSU is tantamount to infringement of the Constitution because it allowed foreign nations to exploit the country’s exclusive economic zones in the Spratlys. It covers 142,886 square kilometers in the South China Sea including areas within Philippine waters.

By Michaela P. del Callar and Sherwin C. Olaes

source: http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20080318hed5.html

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