Back off, EU

President Arroyo has probably made many mistakes in her life, both in her official and personal capacities. With current developments placing not only her tenure on the line but her own life as well, it is time she starts doing the right things.

For instance, Arroyo appears to be under pressure from certain vested interests in the European Union to grant absolute pardon to a young Spanish-Cebuano named Francisco Juan Larrañaga who was convicted, along with several others, in the 1997 rape-murder of two Cebuano sisters.

Larrañaga and the others have already been convicted and sentenced to death by Philippine courts, including the Supreme Court. The European Union has no right whatsoever to interfere in the decisions of Philippine courts, much less exert pressure on the Philippine president.

If the European Parliament, the legislative body of the European Union, has any concerns regarding the case, it should address those concerns to the Philippine Supreme Court, even if the court has already ruled on the case with finality.

That is what supposedly educated, cultured and civilized countries are supposed to do, or are we seeing yet another display of double standard being exercised here by those who think they can get away with it just because they happen to be more powerful than puny Philippines.

What gall and what arrogance have these countries making up the European Union to think they can just switch things on and off in the Philippines on the sheer strength of their economic and political clout.

The Philippines is no longer a colony of Spain, in case the European Parliament may have forgotten. And while many in the international community may have some condescending things to say against it, the fact is, it is still a sovereign country and must duly be respected as such.

And the least that the supposedly civilized world can do for a sovereign country is to respect its sovereign laws, formulate its own solutions to its own problems and allow it to chart its own destiny.

Larrañaga has been duly convicted, not by a kangaroo court, but by the highest judicial authority in the Philippines. Spain and the European Union may not agree with the decision, but they have no right to pressure the Philippines into reversing it.

Larrañaga may be young. And he may be half-Spanish. But that does not detract from the fact that he has been suspected, charged and convicted of the most gruesome crime that Cebu, the cradle of the very Christianity spread by Spain centuries ago, had seen in decades.

Would Spain and the European Union have dared to not only question Philippine judicial authority but go so far as to insult its actual sovereignty if the country had been as powerful as, say, the United States?

Luckily for Spain and the EU, Filipinos are generally a peace-loving people. They are not like others who, unwilling to submit to the arrogant dictates of the West, have now resorted to the most terrifying horror in modern times --- terrorism.

Nevertheless, Spain and the EU should not push the issue just because they think either the Philippines or its president is a pushover. For things are getting pretty quite unsettled in this country. Too much pushing and shoving can actually backfire.

As to Arroyo, who is not exactly the kind of leader you would credit with a spine, she must not succumb to the temptation to sell out even her very own country just to save her own pretty neck.

If Arroyo does not feel like executing convicts, fine. We can go along with the charade that she is balking on account of her being a devout Christian even if all 87 million Filipinos know she is just trying to win political points.

Anyway, the end of her term is only just five years away, that is if she lasts that long. Maybe, when a new president is sworn in, he or she will be more faithful in carrying out the laws he or she is mandated to carry out, or else throw out those laws that he or she can't.

And maybe the new president will be far more respectable enough that other countries will not make the mistake of trying to insult with demands to tamper with his or her own country's sovereign laws.