Push back politics

A proposed rider amendment to a defense spending measure filed before the United States (US) Congress seeks to block aid package until the Philippine National Police (PNP) is deemed to be compliant with basic human rights – by American standards. Specifically, it seeks to place our country’s police organization under the mercy of US Congress.

Speaking of American politics, we first raised about this human rights issues against the Philippines during an interview with Philippine ambassador to the US Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez in our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay virtual news forum last Wednesday. Or, this was two days before the US House of Representatives approved this rider amendment to the proposed 2023 National Defense Authorization Act as submitted by the administration of President Joe Biden to the 117th US Congress.

This amendment was reportedly introduced last week by a partymate of President Biden, Democrat Congresswoman Susan Wild of Pennsylvania. Wild initiated this insertion to reimpose upon this requirement to the PNP as recipient of the American aid package coursed through the US State Department.

This would seem to be the first “bump” in Philippine-US relations at this early stage of the new administration of newly installed President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Romualdez likened our country’s relations with the US having gone through before with more “bumps and some of them are mountains even” during the just ended administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. Appointed by President Duterte in 2017, Romualdez took over at a time when relations between Manila and Washington have been thorny over human rights issues.

During the six years of the Duterte administration’s all out war against illegal drugs dubbed as “Oplan Tokhang,” the Philippines came under fire for alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of illegal drugs suspects. At first, President Duterte went bombastic to a comment in media made by then US President Barack Obama calling attention to the much reported EJKs in the Philippines.

Digging the past, Mr. Duterte sternly reminded us all about American’s own history of human rights abuses not only in the Philippines but also in countries that US colonized. In retaliation, he suspended the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US, which Romualdez claimed gave him sleepless nights. Mr. Duterte warmed up with China and Russia to further smite the US by turning to its biggest world power rivals.

Diplomatese were thrown out of the windows and harsh words dished out by the tough-talking ex-Davao City Mayor.

Fast forward. Romualdez disclosed the Philippines has invited the US to lead the efforts in the United Nations (UN) to pass a Resolution in the forthcoming UNGA General Assembly this September seeking to create a UN Council for Human Rights. This proposed UN body, he explained, will oversee human rights violations all over the world, not the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, but make this UN body to be the venue of all accusations of human rights violations.

“For us, it seems there are a lot of politics in that (ICC) one,” Romualdez quipped. Even the US is not a member of the ICC, he noted. Although formerly part of the ICC, the Philippines left this body, again in retaliation over the filing of a case against then president Duterte for alleged “crimes against humanity” related to EJKs in his war against illegal drugs trade.

While even publicly engaging word war against the US government, ex-president Duterte pushed them to concede back to the Philippines the original Balangiga church bells and returned them in December 2018. Past presidents of the Philippines tried but failed to sway the US into giving up the three bells taken away as war spoils during the Philippine-American war in 1901.

From hindsight, Romualdez realized there were virtues in the “unorthodox” style of foreign policy maneuvers and “strategic” diplomacy employed by the former president. He credited Mr. Duterte’s “foreign relations style” that got us better treatment for our country not only from the US but also by China, the European Union, Australia, Japan etc.

Romualdez is still in Manila following his reappointment after the inaugural into office of President Marcos on June 30. The 74-year old Romualdez, a second cousin of President Marcos by his mother’s side, has been retained to stay on his post in Washington.

While here waiting for the confirmation of his reappointment, Romualdez got a heads up on the first “bump” he has to address once his nomination breezes through the approval by the 19th Congress of the Philippines. As ambassador, Romualdez represents the Philippine interests and concerns in Washington but also before the US Congress. “We tell them these reported human rights violations are investigated and we give reports on these human rights issues,” he pointed out.

Actually, Wild’s proposed rider amendment to the US Defense Spending bill was a reprise of the previous Philippine Human Rights Act which she first introduced in 2020. Then president Duterte, however, dismissed threats of ensuing aid cuts from the US government. When Wild re-filed it the following year, then president Duterte was phone pals already with then US president Donald Trump.

Like our own legislative procedures here, the same bill as amended by the Wild rider will still go through the US Senate for their own approval process. Currently, the US House of Representatives have 224 Democrats and 212 Republicans. While at the US Senate, 50 are Republicans, 48 are Democrats, and 2 are independents who both caucus with the Democrats.

“If our politics here is strong, the politics there are much stronger,” Romualdez conceded.

From the bluster of our country’s former foreign policy chief architect, the administration of President Marcos stands at a position of strength in the Philippines-American relations. His immediate predecessor has handed over to him huge political capital for the Philippines to push back politics in the US Congress.