Ms. Arroyo Goes to Washington

American President Barack Obama’s first meeting with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo , which is also his first meeting with a Southeast Asian head of state, was overshadowed in the American press by the domestic melodrama, known as “Gates-Gate” or the “Beer Summit”.

Although Arroyo is effectively a lame duck,  very unpopular domestically and having less than a year left in office, she is favored by the Obama Administration.  President Obama used the meeting to introduced the Philippines’ as America’s new liaison to ASEAN, a key player in its rapprochement strategy with the SE Asian region.  He went further, heaping much praise on Arroyo for her counter-terrorism efforts, movement on human rights, and her peace initiative with the rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),  in the Muslim autonomous region of Mindanao.  For her part, Arroyo expressed support for most of America’s major policy positions in the region, including climate change, the U.S. position on Myanmar human rights abuses, North Korean nuclear proliferation, and terrorism.

Peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front begin this week.  The four decade old conflict in Mindanao is a decentralized rebellion of myriad interests whose goals range from greater autonomy to a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.  Due to this, although MILF is one of the oldest and largest rebel organization, it by no means speak for the others.  Still, the government has suspended military operations on the island, even after a mysterious series of bombings some blame on separatist groups in Mindanao.  Although MILF has not taken responsibility for these bombing, it is know to have launched 40 confirmed attacks this year alone.

The Filipino armed forces remain convinced, if uninhibited, they could win a decisive military victor against MILF’.  They have already been engaged in a new offensive against the Islamic separatist group, Abu Sayyaf, which is believed to have links to the Indonesian based group, Jemaah Islamiah.

It is certain that Arroyo wanted to show Mr. Obama progress had been made in Mindanao.  Since 9-11, Washington has spent approximately US$300 million on economic development in the province for education, telecommunications and livelihood projects.  The current USAID sponsored programs have been criticized for having a limited effect, but any assistance in the region is an improvement,  as it is one of the poorest areas in the Philippines. The poverty and internal displacement caused by the conflict is thought to only fuel the separatist movement.

Since 2002, the US has given significant military aid, providing hundreds of soldiers in the southern Philippines as part of joint counter-terrorism exercises, also known as the Visiting Forces Agreement and Balikatan Exercises.  America is the only nation the Philippines has a defense treaty with and its also the Phillipines’ largest donor of military aid.   This has not come without controversy, the presence of U.S. troops on Filipino soil and complaints concerning human rights abuses by the Filipino army have put the U.S.  and Arryo governments under pressure.

A person might think, based on how last week concluded,  this week would start off well for Arroyo politically, especially considering  the positive press from the Obama White House visit and Cory Aquino’s death.  The latter would usually  keep the spotlight off a sitting president for at least a week.  To the contrary,  Aquino’s death appears to have energized the opposition; an estimated 10,000 protestors took to the streets on  Monday.  Not exactly akin to the protests Aquino lead against Marcos, but a headache I’m sure Arroyo hoped to avoid.  Ah…let the approval rating hemorrhage continue.