Meddlers

Since last April, two framed Philippine souvenirs had greeted visitors to the embassy office of US Chargé d’Affaires Joseph Mussomeli.

One was a note verbale from Manila, assailing him for saying Mindanao could find itself in an "Afghanistan situation" if both the Philippines and the United States lost their focus on the war on terror. Another was the original of a newspaper editorial cartoon that generally agreed with his assessment.

Both souvenirs have been taken down and packed away with other belongings for shipping to Phnom Penh, where Mussomeli will assume his post in a month as US ambassador to Cambodia.

In the meantime, he has a new souvenir that can be framed and displayed alongside the two others: his Order of Sikatuna medal, the highest diplomatic honor conferred by the Philippine government. It was awarded to him the other day by Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, who had signed the note verbale.

The Sikatuna award came with words of appreciation for Mussomeli’s consistent expression of Washington’s support for the Arroyo administration since the start of the latest political crisis.

The support, as Mussomeli and other US officials have repeatedly emphasized, is not for any individual but for constitutional processes, institutions and the rule of law. That Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo happens to head the duly constituted government – until proven otherwise in a proper forum – is incidental.

In a land where people see everything only in black and white, however, one is either for or against President Arroyo. If you support her government, you support her. And so the administration is grateful for Washington’s support, while the left as usual is telling Mussomeli and all other foreign devils to stop poking their noses into Philippine internal affairs.

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If we want the Americans – and all other foreigners – to stop meddling in Philippine affairs, we should end our dependence on foreign aid for everything from the construction of artesian wells to national defense.

Malaysia’s pugnacious former leader Mahathir Mohamad made sure his nation was self-reliant as he kept thumbing his nose at the West. The Thais also threw out all US troops without ending the bilateral defense alliance, and quickly invested in building up their own defense capability. These days the Thais maintain a healthy alliance with the Americans without feeling insecure about it, and the Royal Thai Army is donating used military hardware to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, whose modernization program is stuck in the realm of best-efforts pledges.

Since throwing out US troops, our defense capability has steadily deteriorated. Weak law enforcement and porous borders have turned the southern Philippines into a base for terrorist training and recruitment in the region. With a deadly enemy growing in strength and the AFP growing weaker, where did we turn to for help?

You guessed it: GI Joe returned, upon our invitation. At one point before the war in Iraq, Manila and Washington even toyed with the idea of stationing an American naval vessel in the waters off Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi for quicker anti-terror response.

And it’s not just in defense matters that the Americans are called in for assistance. Every self-respecting destabilizer or coup plotter in this country sounds out the Americans for their views. People with valid grievances against those in power also try to get the Americans on their side.

I’m not sure if this is a manifestation of lingering colonial mentality, or if people simply want to make sure that if their scheme succeeds and a new group takes over the reins of government, the regime change will get international support. And which country has the greatest clout in the international arena?

When a nation is heavily dependent on foreign aid, international opinion matters. Say what you will about American meddling; the prospect of someone like Joe Mussomeli opening his big mouth to denounce the takeover by a junta or revolutionary council can have a chilling effect on destabilizers.

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It’s not a role the Americans relish. The Bush administration has too many problems on its plate these days to be interested in meddling in other countries’ political woes. Washington stayed neutral during EDSA II in January 2001, and it has so far stayed neutral in the latest political upheaval in Manila, warning only against violence, extra-constitutional modes of regime change or the use of military force for political purposes.

Taking sides in public can be particularly difficult for someone like the affable Joe Mussomeli, who has made friends with Filipinos from all bands of the political spectrum.

Many times in the past, US officials have been confounded by the impact in Manila of what they thought — considering the entire context — were innocuous statements.

The Bush administration, full of hawks in the war on terror, did not tell Mussomeli to shut up after the furor over the Afghanistan statement. But it gave US officials a better appreciation of the impact of their statements in this country.

In his farewell meeting with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines last Monday, Mussomeli told me that he had tried to be as cautious, neutral and non-controversial in his answers as possible. No diplomat wants to get expelled by the host government in his final week on the job. He had praise, he said, for both the administration and opposition and the way everyone has tried to resolve the current crisis in a responsible, democratic way.

You saw how the stories came out, and how the left, right on cue, scolded the meddling Mussomeli.

The "meddling" isn’t going to stop even with his departure tomorrow for Washington for his swearing in as ambassador and briefing on his new assignment.

Whoever heads the US Embassy will voice the stand of Washington and not his personal views. Darryl Johnson, who officially takes over from Mussomeli tomorrow, can’t possibly keep giving the press a safe "no comment" throughout his temporary stewardship of the embassy. Unless there is a dramatic change in the stand of Washington, Johnson is likely to give the same answers as Mussomeli if interviewed by the press about the ongoing political crisis.

The answers will be denounced as foreign intervention. And perhaps it is intervention, until we stop asking the Americans to meddle in our affairs and we can stand on our own two feet.