PEACE FOR LIFE BULLETIN

2004 July 13

Valuing LIFE Amid An Unjust War

“I have set before you life and death…

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

(Deuteronomy 30:19)

Candlelight prayer vigils and protest marches have become almost a daily affair in Metro Manila in the wake of the kidnapping of Angelo de la Cruz, a Filipino truck driver abducted by an Iraqi armed group near Fallujah last week. The scenes are reminiscent of candlelight vigils that filled the streets of Seoul barely a month ago surrounding the abduction and eventual beheading by Iraqi militants of South Korean translator Kim Sun-il. Italian security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi and American businessman Nicolas Berg were similarly abducted and executed by their Iraqi captors in April and May respectively. Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov, kidnapped and beheaded this week by Sun-il’s captors, was the latest civilian casualty in the spate of hostage-takings that have marked Iraqi resistance against the unjust and illegal foreign occupation of their land. In addition to this, suicide bombings and roadside assaults from insurgents and air raids from US troops have killed scores of Iraqis and at least 38 US troops since the June 28 handover of ‘sovereignty’ to Iraq.

Angelo’s captors, Khaled Bin Al-Walid Squadrons of the Islamic Army of Iraq, threatened to behead this father of eight unless the Philippine government declares a clear intention to withdraw its troops from Iraq by the 20th of July, one month ahead of schedule. Filipinos, fearful that the fate of Fabrizio, Nick, Sun-il and Georgi would befall Angelo, and whose collective memory bears the pain of losing Flor Contemplacion, an overseas domestic helper hanged by Singaporean authorities on arguably false criminal charges eight years ago, registered a strong and united clamour to withdraw the troops in order to save the life of a fellow Filipino.

The announcement of troop pullback was quickly rebuked by the United States (US) and the supporters of its occupation of Iraq as a concession—described as ‘cowardly act’ by the US media—to terrorists and an ill-planned move that would send wrong signals to Iraqi insurgents and render occupation troops and foreign civilians in Iraq vulnerable to more attacks. Comparisons have been drawn with the responses of South Korea and Bulgaria, praised by Secretary of State Colin Powell for “not blinking and not faltering even though they are being tested mightily.” The Seoul government had junked the demand of Sun-il’s captors for withdrawal and even promised to send in more troops to honour its commitment to support the US-led war on terrorism.

The foreign business community, forever fearful of anything that may indicate a reversal of the Philippine government’s position that equates US interests with national interests, predicted that the troop withdrawal would result in a sharp reduction in already diminishing US aid to the Philippines as well as the loss of big contracts in the reconstruction of Iraq. What the critics omitted is fact that the ‘juicy contracts’ were never meant for Philippine contractors; they were, from the very start, for the likes of Halliburton, Betchel and other White House cronies. At best, what the Filipinos will have access to are subcontracts for jobs that are too menial and risky for other workers who can afford to be choosy. Particularly lamentable is the scramble for the spoils of war, the mindset that sees bombed school buildings or hospitals as a promise of a juicy contract and not as an abominable act of state terrorism.

This Philippine government, embattled by a divided nation in the face of a contested victory in last May’s national elections, gambled its historical alliance with the United States with the official announcement in recent week that it has begun the gradual withdrawal of its 51-person humanitarian contingent from Iraq. Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the declared winner of the recently concluded election, needed to consolidate domestic support for an administration whose legitimacy remains under question in the wake of widespread reports of electoral fraud. The Philippine government caved in not so much to the kidnappers’ demand, but to popular clamour, which has become harder to ignore in light of findings by top-level inquiries in the US and United Kingdom (UK) of serious flaws in the intelligence reports relied upon to justify the US-UK invasion of Iraq. The hostage crisis has projected to ordinary Filipinos, who are otherwise apathetic to world affairs except where they affect overseas Filipino workers, the perils that come with the Philippine government’s subservience to US interests. Lawmakers and media in the country have called on government to seize the opportunity opened up by the hostage crisis to correct its mistake of supporting the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq and to shape an independent foreign policy.

Though widely perceived as ambiguous, token and a tactic to buy time and recover lost ground, the move by the Philippine government—regardless of the direction it takes after the hostage crisis—has sent shockwaves to the Coalition of the Willing, a dwindling alliance already reeling from the impacts of reports damning the integrity of US and UK intelligence and the controversy surrounding US treatment of Iraqi captives in the Abu Ghraib prison.

Notwithstanding the vagueness and populist intent behind its announcement of troop withdrawal, the Philippine government has, unwittingly and falteringly perhaps, taken a step towards adopting foreign policy options that may rile an old benefactor and only global superpower. The hostage crisis—which has seen the conflation of the national interest with the personal interest of saving the life of Angelo de la Cruz—offers an important opportunity for a nation that has been historically slavish to US dictates to begin to chart an independent course that would uphold, first and foremost, the life and well-being of its people.

The challenge now is for the Philippine government to categorically withdraw from the Bush coalition against terror and declare the Iraq war unjust and illegal. Unfortunately, Philippine ruling elite’s unbroken record of mendicancy, especially under the present dispensation, yields little evidence that such a call will be heeded.

THE SECRETARIAT

People’s Forum on Peace for Life