Palace assails New York Times editorial

Malacañang assailed The New York Times (NYT) yesterday for its editorial commenting on President Arroyo’s alleged cheating in the 2004 elections, noting that even observers from the United States had attested that no massive and systematic fraud was committed during the electoral exercise.

At the same time, Palace officials said the Philippine press "remains free and vibrant" despite the recent declaration of a state of national emergency under Proclamation 1017, adding that the US newspaper’s assessment of the Philippine situation "is dead wrong."

"They must be very sensitive when it comes to the supposed curtailment of the freedom of the press. But there is no such thing and all these are non-issues now," presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said.

Defensor said the government was actually working now to strengthen the country’s institutions under a democracy.

He added the NYT could ask former US embassy chargé d’affaires Joseph Mussommeli, who has said there was no massive cheating in the last elections.

"Curtailment of press freedom has also been the concern of the international community but there is no more crackdown on the media now, and even before," Defensor said.

For his part, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the NYT did not consider the threats faced by the government that drove it to implement several policies frowned upon by the world.

"We respect the editorial opinion of the NYT but we are deeply disappointed that it has miserably failed to understand and appreciate two facets of the Philippine situation," Bunye said.

"One is the vibrant landscape of free speech, the free press and the liberal — if not licentious — atmosphere pervading political discourse. The other is the unseen world of right-left conspiracies to overthrow the democratically elected regime of President Arroyo," he added.

Bunye said the government used the full arsenal of its democratic constitution to fight back, "and if we did not act on time, democracy as we know it would have died in the Philippines."

"Unfortunately, our strong actions to save democracy have been labeled as veering towards authoritarianism. The assessment is dead wrong," he said.

Bunye insisted that "liberal democracy rules in the Philippines because the government and the people saved it. The Constitution is in force, the courts are there to define the limits of political power, and the press is very much alive, still kicking and screaming."

The NYT editorial had said Mrs. Arroyo’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies were endangering democracy in the country.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo responded to NYT, saying the Philippines is the "freest" country in Asia.

Mrs. Arroyo "is determined to preserve the wide democratic space that makes Philippine society the freest in Asia — even if it is this democratic space that is abused, manipulated and exploited by partisan politics and violent groups."

He also said that during the week-long state of national emergency, the Arroyo administration "received the support and understanding of the international community" and resident diplomats "had a deep understanding of the actions taken by the President."

The members of the diplomatic community "were acutely aware of the prevailing atmosphere of destructive and divisive politics within which violence, mutiny and rebellion were being nurtured," Romulo said.

Lawmakers react

Pro-administration Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago lashed out at the NYT, expressing disgust over the US newspaper’s "foreign policy imperialism," and told the NYT "to stop advancing US business interests in the Philippines, in the guise of commenting on local political developments."

"My hackles rose when I read the NYT editorial, which is a paradigmatic example of gung-ho American foreign policy imperialism. NYT has to get out of the box, because this is already the post-Vietnam era," she said.

Santiago added that American media moguls should cease and desist from trying to cast the Philippines in the American image.

She said there was "no reason to demonize President Arroyo, unless the NYT has formed a search committee to choose the next Philippine president."

Santiago stressed that the NYT does not speak for the US government or the American people, adding that the Philippine-US relations are on an even keel, and continue to be amicable and forthright.

Santiago defended Mrs. Arroyo’s decision to put the country under a state of emergency, saying the move "is not authoritarian, that is a constitutional necessity. NYT should instead focus on the terrorist tendencies of the extreme left."

Santiago also contradicted the NYT’s editorial on the alleged "intimidation of critical journalists."

Without mentioning names, she added that, "critical journalism is freely practiced by the anti-Arroyo media, including one leading TV network and one leading national broadsheet."

Deputy House Majority Leader Edcel Lagman added the perception of NYT has no factual basis and the newspaper owes the government an apology.

He also said the call for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation and the holding of snap elections has no constitutional basis.

Lagman said snap elections cannot be held unless the posts of president and vice president are unoccupied.

Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay said the NYT editorial was an "unfair and biased commentary."

On the other hand, Minority Leader Francis Escudero said Mrs. Arroyo and her officials "should blame themselves" for the NYT editorial.

"If they are spotless, clean and without fault, no one can complain about their performance. I am not surprised, though, with their reaction. True to form, instead of correcting their mistakes and mending their ways, they simply look for someone else to blame," he said.

Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez said Bunye should take a large part of the blame since the editorial meant that Mrs. Arroyo’s principal spokesman failed miserably in articulating her stand on issues.

Golez, the President’s former national security adviser, urged his former boss to heed the editorial.

"Influential newspapers like NYT and Washington Post are known to be at times conduits of White House or State Department’s policy line. It is possible that Washington is embarrassed by the observation that while the US is trying to democratize countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, the Philippines, a show window of US-style democracy, is sliding back to Marcos-style governance," he said.

For his part, Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption, said Bunye should blame himself instead of looking for a scapegoat.

He said that unlike Filipino politicians, the NYT and other foreign papers "are beyond the reach of the CPR (calibrated preemptive response) weapon of an administration that is increasingly becoming repressive and authoritarian." — With Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Jess Diaz, Perseus Echeminada, Edu Punay