Erap twits ex-US envoy on WikiLeaks report

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Joseph Estrada yesterday criticized former US ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney over her statement in a WikiLeaks report that the late former President Corazon Aquino was only a “partial icon of morality.”

A 2009 US Embassy cable from online whistle-blower WikiLeaks that was published in various newspapers quoted Kenney as saying Aquino’s credibility as a moral crusader was tarnished because she associated herself with Estrada in protest movements against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“This report shows that in her (Kenney) efforts to defend GMA , she deliberately misled the American government from seeing that former President Cory Aquino and our people were fighting for a real democracy for our country,” Estrada said.

He said Kenney is “an embarrassment to the American government as she forgot the American ideals of democracy.”

“Remember that this woman (Kenney) not only favored but joined GMA’s efforts to push for the dismemberment of our country. She was very visible in the grand conspiracy under the Arroyo administration to dismember Mindanao and hand it on a silver platter to the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front),” Estrada added, referring to the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which Kenney supported.

Estrada also lauded Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario for his statement that Kenney was “a dismal failure in helping the Filipinos defend our democracy.”

“Kristie Kenney’s criticism of our champion of democracy was most unfortunate,” Del Rosario said in a text message from Beijing, where he was accompanying Aquino on a state visit to China. – Jose Rodel Clapano, AP