Poor Mr. Leahy
Patrick Leahy, one of two United States senators publicly demanding the release of Philippine senator Leila de Lima from what they say is wrongful detention, claiming she is a victim of political persecution, is a big disgrace and disappointment to his high office. Not only does he reek of arrogance, he wallows in deep hypocrisy as well.
For a person of his stature, it is difficult to imagine he is unaware that De Lima is not exactly a stranger to political persecution herself, granting she is indeed in jail as a result of that. But just in case Mr. Leahy is blissfully unaware, De Lima in 2011 brazenly defied a Philippine Supreme Court order that would have allowed former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to leave for medical treatment abroad.
As justice secretary to President Noynoy Aquino, who hated Arroyo down to the hairs of his bachelor balls, De Lima had Arroyo arrested as she was about to board her flight. That Arroyo was later acquitted of the charges De Lima caused to be filed against her only proves her arrest was politically motivated. And Mr. Leahy calls De Lima's arrest by the same name? Well, granting she is now the victim, isn't that the best example of poetic justice?
Mr. Leahy does not have the moral authority to lecture the Philippines and its leaders about democratic processes and human rights. As a member of the US Senate that is presided over by the American vice president, Mr. Leahy must have known, or read somewhere, that in 1981 then US vice president George H.W. Bush, the leader of the American Senate, infamously toasted the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
"We love your adherence to democratic principle and to democratic processes," Bush told America's favorite strongman in Asia at the time. Mr. Leahy, isn't it American foreign policy to prop up dictators and human rights violators for as long as they profess to be American allies and act as your forward line of defense against communism and now terrorism? Isn't the American squeeze really because of President Duterte's pivot to China?
And why did Duterte turn to China? Because then US president Barrack Obama, who is supposed to be a friend and ally, publicly disrespected and humiliated him. To butter himself up on the way to attend an ASEAN Summit as a guest, he publicly called out Duterte, an ASEAN member, regarding the war he started against illegal drugs. Men of dignity and respect talk privately about sovereign concerns. They don't shame each other in public.
But, that seems to be the American way. Reeking with arrogance and wallowing in deep hypocrisy, they tell off foreign governments regarding sovereign policies they do not like. Imagine Leahy telling the Philippines to free De Lima? Who does Leahy think he is? A colonial animal trainer with a whip? If Mr. Leahy truly has the balls that he seems to project, why doesn't he come here and try insulting us Filipinos to our faces?
Naturally angered by American arrogance and meddling, Duterte threatened to require visas of all American visitors. Leahy called the threat irrational. What is irrational, Mr. Leahy, is not requiring visas of Americans even if America itself requires visas of Filipinos. If you cannot see the inequality, unfairness, and irrationality in that, then you better have yourself checked, Mr. Leahy. But then again, you are never wrong, right Mr. Leahy?
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