Truck driver causes rift in RP-US alliance

Triumphant return for Angelo dela Cruz, loss of face for the Philippine Government.

A truck driver forced the Philippines to renege on its commitment to the United States.

A little more than two weeks after Filipino overseas worker Angelo dela Cruz fell into the hands of kidnappers, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo acceded to their demand that she withdraw the 96-member Philippine Humanitarian Contingent in Iraq, a move that put her on collision course with the US, which was prosecuting a war in that country.

The Philippines had been among the first countries to sign up in the so-called Coalition of the Willing, an alliance cobbled by the US and Great Britain in preparation for the invasion of Iraq.

For that gesture, President George W. Bush heaped lavish praises on the Philippines. During a state visit, he announced the inclusion of the country among the US’ major non-NATO allies, a designation that entitles it to increased economic and military assistance.

Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo for a while basked in the limelight of US admiration.

Then on July 4, the kidnappers struck. They waylaid dela Cruz while he was driving a truck carrying fuel from Saudi Arabia to Iraq. Four days later, in a film clip shown on Arab television channel Al-Jazeera, a hooded group of armed men, who called themselves Khaled ibn al-Walid, warned they would behead dela Cruz unless all Filipino troops leave Iraq within 72 hours.

At first Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo tried to tough it out, saying the troops would stay until their mission would have been completed. She caved in, however, and ordered the withdrawal after the rebels announced a few days later on the same channel that they were now bringing the hostage to the execution site.

The hapless driver has since gone back to his family in Buenavista, Mexico, Pampanga, but the hasty pullout plunged relations between the US and the Philippines to an all-time low.

The former hostage upon arrival at NAIA thanks President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for pulling out Filipino troops from Iraq

In a scathing editorial the New York Times observed that Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision merely emboldened terrorists and portended disastrous long-term consequences.

The governments of Australia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Singapore echoed the sentiments. Of these countries, the first issued the bluntest statement, saying the Philippines should take the blame for the spate of abductions that followed the pullout.

Despite the flak, Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo said she did not regret the decision. She noted that of the nine million Filipinos abroad, 1.5 million were overseas workers in the Middle East, 4000 of them in Iraq, and that she had the responsibility to ensure their safety.

But the real reason she so readily gave in might have been her tenuous hold to power.Having won the recently concluded election by the slightest of margins, she feared the massive demonstrations that the execution of the hostage could spark--demonstrations that could very well drive her from office.

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