Chapter 27: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Era 2001-2010

Chap 27, pg 1

On January 20, 2001, following the toppling of President Estrada by the EDSA II People Power revolt, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as the 14th Philippine President. President Arroyo said her initial agenda would include building up a strong bureaucracy, lowering crime rates, increasing tax collection, improving economic growth, and intensifying counter-terrorism efforts. Her presidency saw a restoration of friendly political and military ties between the Philippine and American governments, largely due to Ms. Arroyos embrace of the American-led Global War on Terror and her support for neoliberal economic policies.

September 11 Attacks
Following closure of the American bases at Subic Bay and Clark Field in 1992, relations between the Philippines and the United States cooled and remained lukewarm during the 1990s. In September 2001 terrorists attacked the United States, causing the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York which killed thousands of Americans. Following the attack, U.S. President George Bush declared a Global War on Terrorism, which President Arroyo enthusiastically joined. In 2002 the U.S. designated the Philippines as a Second Front in the War on Terror, and in 2003 President Bush declared the Philippines to be a major non-NATO ally. Relations between the U.S. military and the Armed Forces of the Philippines began to warm again.

Increased American Aid

The Arroyo Administration was rewarded with increased American military and economic aid. There was a radical transformation of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines. Military aid: U.S. military aid went from near zero in 2001, to 18 million dollars in 2002, and to around 70 million dollars in 2009. Military guidance: The U.S. Military began providing more guidance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines for domestic counter-insurgency wars against the Communist New Peoples Army and Muslim separatists. Military training exercises: The two nations increased their annual joint trainings involving the AFP and American military, especially the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises. Law Enforcement aid: The American government began offering Philippine law enforcement agencies a number of programs for the training of PNP officers, implementation of a bilateral extradition treaty, and cooperation in the search for terrorist suspects. Non-military aid: Non-military aid from the U.S. likewise increased, largely directed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) USAID projects are tightly integrated with U.S. military aid in a carrot and stick counter-insurgency strategy. In 2007 the Bush and Arroyo administrations signed an agreement for a peace and development program in Mindanao costing 190 million dollars over a five year period. Food aid: The U.S. provides food aid to the Philippines under Public Law 480, also known as Food for Peace. Critics claim this dumping of surplus agricultural products actually hurts Filipino farmers.

President Arroyos Economic Program

Neoliberalism

Chap 27, pg 2

President Arroyo claimed she delivered 34 quarters of uninterrupted economic expansion while President. What were her economic policies? Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo trained as an economist. She is a staunch supporter of the Washington Consensus, a set of economic policy prescriptions pushed by the United States and usually labeled as neoliberalism. These include: * Liberalization: Removal of government interference in financial markets, capital markets, and of barriers to trade. * Deregulation: Reduction and/or elimination of government restrictions on business, ostensibly to improve efficiency. * Privatization: selling-off of government-owned assets such as water and electricity utilities, roads, railroads and airports.

In I994, as a Senator, Arroyo led the fight in the Philippine Senate to approve Philippines membership in the World Trade Organization. This work established her credentials as a major proponent of neoliberalism in the Philippines. As President, Arroyo pleased the U.S. Government and international agencies such as the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, by consistently pushing for increased international borrowing and high payments on an already huge external debt. She pushed for continued export of agricultural exports and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW.) The United States and the Philippines continue to have close economic ties and the U.S. remains the Philippines most important trading partner. America is the largest market for Philippine exports, mostly of semi-manufactured electronic components. The United States is also the largest source of Philippine imports, including electronic components, industrial equipment, and agricultural products.

Business process outsourcing

The Philippines has benefitted from jobs being outsourced (moved) from the United States and other wealthy countries, by establishing hundreds of offshore call centers employing Filipinos. These jobs pay relatively high wages and bring badly needed foreign exchange to the country. This sector was initially dominated by American firms.

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW)

President Arroyo vigorously promoted the Overseas Foreign Worker program. As of 2008, there were about 11 million Filipinos working abroad, equivalent to 11% of the Philippine population. As a group they are a significant contributor to the national economy, sending home remittances estimated at 752 Billion Pesos (16 Billion dollars) in 2008. This is about 13.5% of the economy. The greatest population of OFWs, an estimated 4 million Filipinos, work and live in the USA. Critics charge that the OFW program is an easy way to expand government revenues, while doing nothing to promote domestic Philippine economic development. Critics have accused President Arroyo of reinforcing the Philippines traditional neocolonial role: * Borrowing large sums from foreign banks for dubious economic projects like the NBN broadband project commits the Philippines to big payments which limit government ability to provide social services for the poor. * Exporting cheap agricultural products and labor does not help the Philippines to industrialize.

Criticism

Military Ties with the USA

Chap 27, pg 3

Following the 9/11 attacks of 2001 and President Arroyos embrace of the US Global War on Terror, there was a dramatic increase in American military aid, a higher level of cooperation between the military forces of the two nations, and stationing of American soldiers in the Philippines.

Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)

Signed in 1999, the VFA is the joint agreement which provides a legal basis for the presence of American soldiers in the Philippines. Despite controversy and legal challenges, the agreement remains intact and has even been affirmed by the Philippine Supreme Court. Critics believe that the VFA is one-sided, prejudicial to Filipinos, and restricts the sovereignty of the Philippines. The US Government has since 2003 been stationing 400 to 600 American troops on a more-or-less continuous basis at bases called cooperative security locations in the southern Philippines. Such permanent basing constitutes violation of the VFA which stipulates that U.S. troops are allowed only brief stays in the Philippines. Some analysts believe that the American military buildup in the Philippines is designed to prepare for possible hostilities with the Peoples Republic of China.

Growing US military presence

Balikatan military exercises

Balikatan are a series of annual training exercises held jointly by Philippine and US militaries. The exercises are said to improve RP-US combined planning, combat readiness, and interoperability between the two military forces.

Burnham kidnapping
The US had an opportunity to demonstrate its military support in 2001 when the Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant Islamist separatist group, kidnapped an American missionary couple. Martin and Gracia Burnham were held captive for over a year. During a 2002 joint rescue effort by the Philippine and American militaries, Martin Burnham was killed.

Counterinsurgency assistance

The U.S. Military provides direct assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines in waging counter-insurgency wars against two insurgent groups: 1. New Peoples Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which is fighting a protracted peoples war with a long-term goal of overthrowing the Philippine government. 2. Moro separatists in the southern Philippines, especially the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), both of whom are fighting to establish an independent homeland for the Moro minority. In 2009 a Philippine Navy lieutenant testified that American soldiers were embedded with Filipino troops in combat situations in Mindanao, and that the United States had taken part in the planning of combat operations against terrorist and Moro targets.

2004 Philippines joins the Iraq War

In response to pressure from the Bush Administration, President Arroyo in 2003 sent a humanitarian contingent of 51 Filipino soldiers, engineers and medics to join the Americanled Multinational Force in Iraq. However, the Filipino force returned home in 2004 when a Filipino truck driver in Iraq, Angelo dela Cruz, was kidnapped and held hostage by Islamic militants who threatened to behead him unless the Philippine contingent was withdrawn.

Increasing American Involvement in Mindanao

Chap 27, pg 4

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the U.S. Government initiated several new projects in Mindanao, and then continued and expanded its level of activity during the Arroyo era. Some of these can be considered as development projects, and some are simply military interventions. There are several reasons for the heightened American focus on this region: concern about terrorist activity, the regions proximity to the South China Sea which is considered of high strategic importance, and the need for a stable and peaceful region to facilitate economic exploitation of the mineral wealth of Mindanao.

Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM)

Growth with Equity in Mindanao is a USAID (United States Agency for International Development) economic development program which began in 1996. It has two principle objectives: 1. Accelerate economic growth in Mindanao and help assure that as many people as possible benefit from the economic growth and that the benefits are equitably distributed. 2. Help bring about and consolidate peace in Mindanao. According to some observers, the GEM Program is popular among many Muslims in Mindanao because it is one of the few international assistance agencies that the Muslims consider as serious in alleviating their conditions.

Joint Special Operations Task Force - Philippines (JSOTF-P)

The JSOTF-P was established in 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, based on the belief that organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiah were using their Southern Philippines lairs to plan further terrorist attacks. The U.S. describes the official purpose of the task force as working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to fight terrorism and deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Mindanao. The unit is based in Zamboanga City and includes 500 American soldiers. JSOTF-P has a counterinsurgency role and employs a combination of conventional and unconventional warfare, psychological operations, and civic actions to win the hearts and minds of the people. The U.S. military insists that JSOTF-P is strictly limited to a non-combat role; however there have been numerous sightings of American soldiers present during combat operations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and a number of JSOTF-P soldiers have been killed; but the United States claims these all occurred in non-hostile incidents.

United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

The United States Institute of Peace is a non-governmental institution established and funded by the U.S. Congress. Its stated goals are to help prevent and resolve violent conflicts, promote post-conflict peacebuilding, and increase conflict management tools, capacity, and intellectual capital worldwide. Following a direct appeal by MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim to U.S. President Bush in 2003, the USIP became involved in the negotiations between the Philippine Government and the MILF. Many Moro people view the American involvement in the peace process as a positive development which may help the chances of success in peace-building efforts.

2004 Presidential Election

Chap 27, pg 5

President Arroyo stood for re-election in May, 2004. For the election campaign, she used the popular practice of hiring an American public relations firm to help her win. She employed Burson-Marsteller, the same American firm she had used to promote the image of the Philippines during her 2002 visit to the United States.

Arroyo won a full six-year term as President, with a margin of just over one million votes over her two leading opponents, the popular movie actor Fernando Poe, Jr., and former PNP Director Ping Lacson.

Hello Garci
In 2005, a scandal erupted when an audio tape surfaced which reputedly contained wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and an official of the Commission on Elections, Virgilio Garcillano. According to critics, the contents of the tape proved that the 2004 national election had been rigged by Arroyo in order to win by around one million votes. Arroyo admitted to having inappropriately spoken to a Comelec official, claiming it had been a lapse in judgment; but she denied having influenced the outcome of the election. It was generally believed that the recordings were authentic and there followed an opposition attempt in Congress to impeach Arroyo, which failed.

Before this, American media had been supportive of Arroyo. But with revelations about vote rigging in the 2004 elections, newspapers such as the New York Times ran stories critical of the Philippine President.

Human Rights under Arroyo

Chap 27, pg 6

The Arroyo Government drew wide international criticism because of dismal human right situation in the Philippines. Most blamed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the rise in abuses. Philippine human rights group Karapatan claims that more than 900 Filipinos were victims of extrajudicial execution during the Arroyo Presidency. Government agencies claimed these numbers were exaggerated and that most of the killings were the result of an internal purge within the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch)

Launched in 2002, Oplan Bantay Laya was the counterinsurgency program of the Arroyo Government. The stated strategic goal of Oplan Bantay Laya was to decisively defeat insurgent armed groups in order to attain and maintain peace and security for national development. The plan targeted the CPP/NPA/NDF, the MILF, and the Abu Sayyaf group. However, Armed Forces of the Philippines used it as an excuse to target Filipinos working in legal political organizations. The military claims these organizations are fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines and are thus legitimate targets. The result was a flood of serious cases of human rights violations: arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, disappearances and killings, many or most of which were attributed to the AFP.

Phoenix Program

Many observers have noted the similarities between Oplan Bantay Laya and the Phoenix Program, an intelligence and security program employed by the U.S. in Vietnam. The U.S. has admitted that 26,000 Vietnamese were killed under Phoenix; many have thus called it an assassination program. Considering that the American military has helped guide the AFP in counterinsurgency operations, the US military is thus closely linked both to the creation Oplan Bantay Laya and also to the pattern of gross human rights abuses under the Arroyo Administration.

International Reactions
In 2007, the United Nations sent Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston to the Philippines to investigate the human rights situation. His report implicated the Armed Forces of the Philippines, concluding that Oplan Bantay Laya had given rise to human rights abuses by the security forces because it did not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants. International groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the World Council of Churches all pointed to the Philippine governments counterinsurgency campaign as the cause of the extrajudicial killings of activists, as well as the impunity that also resulted in the killings of journalists. US President George Bush was silent on the Philippines human rights situation. In 2007 the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee demanded that the Arroyo administration leash government security forces or face a reduction in the 360 million dollar annual U.S. counterinsurgency aid. Despite international criticism, human rights abuses continued under the Arroyo regime: in 2009, the last year of her Presidency, there were 130 extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

Final two years of the Arroyo Presidency

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. President Obama has continued the foreign policies of the Bush Administration with regard to the Philippines.

Chap 27, pg 7

In January 2009, U.S.-based Intel Corporation closed its computer processor assembly test facility in Cavite due to the global economic recession. 1800 Filipino workers lost their jobs at the plant which Intel operated in the Philippines for 35 years.

On February 12, 2009, the Philippine Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) which governs the conduct of American servicemen in the Philippines. The decision was a blow to those who had hoped that the high court would rule the agreement unconstitutional. As part of the same ruling, the court also decided that U.S. serviceman Daniel Smith, convicted in 2006 of rape and currently being held at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, should be transferred from U.S. to Philippine authorities.

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed a bill which included a provision declaring that the service of Filipino World War Two veterans is hereby recognized as active military service in the Armed Forces of the United States and awarded them lump sum payments of thousands of U.S. dollars. Surviving veterans, most now in their 80s and 90s, hailed the longdelayed decision rewarding them for having fought the Japanese.

2010 Philippine Presidential Election

In May 2010 the Philippines held national elections to elect a new President, Vice President and members of both houses of Congress. Benigno Aquino III, son of former President Corazon Aquino and former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., beat out former President Joseph Estrada and Senator Manuel Villar to succeed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the next Philippine President.