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Saturday, September 17, 2005
Editorials: Arroyo in New York
In better times, President Arroyo successfully presiding over the meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York would have already become an event as well appreciated as Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Mexican Hector Velazquez.
There was Arroyo guiding a gathering of leaders of the world's powerful nations—United States President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Valdimir Putin and many others—and surviving it.
That provided firsts. Arroyo has been recorded as the first Philippine president, the first Asian head of state and first woman leader to preside over the Security Council.
One can argue that presiding over such meetings is not a big deal for veteran big stage dwellers, the function being merely a sideshow to the more important discussion on vital world security concerns.
But coming from a small-time player in the international arena, the country's representative can easily melt even with just the presence of the said leaders.
One can imagine then having the likes of a Joseph Estrada, or had Arroyo resigned from the presidency with the vice president taking over, a Noli de Castro, doing that job.
Still, it is a testament to the continuing political turmoil in the country that people's appraisal of that event has been reduced to the proverbial “half-full-half empty” glass of water—meaning, it is dependent on which side of the political fence one is in.
Indeed, how can Arroyo's critics view it in a positive light when they have been questioning her continued stay in office and therefore the legitimacy of her representing the country in the Security Council meeting?
Spying
One of the amusing reactions to the arrest of former police officer Michael Ray Aquino and Filipino-American Leandro Aragoncillo in New York for espionage is the attempt of politicians and some sectors to turn the table on the United States.
If the contents of the classified documents allegedly stolen by Aquino and Aragoncillo from Federal Bureau of Investigation were about the Philippines, ergo, the Americans are spying on us—and why are they doing that?
Of course, these politicians and some sectors are not naïve not to know that the US, to protect its international and domestic interests, has been gathering information on many countries throughout the world for decades already.
In short, the professed amazement at what the US is doing is apparently dishonest and may have been meant to muddle the issue or deflect attention away from the patrons of Aquino and Aragoncillo.
(September 17, 2005 issue)
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