Despite the rhetoric of “Change”, the Obama administration is at base continuing the geopolitical thrust of consolidating US hegemony in the world with minor changes in approach and methods, e.g. talking with “rogue states” instead of threatening them with preemptive first strike option, without necessarily giving up that option. This includes continuing and strengthening US military presence overseas.

Specific to the Philippines, this translates to increasing military aid and so-called training exercises and permanent US military presence as exemplified by the JSOTFP deployment and forward operating sites in Mindanao despite the 1991 Philippine Senate decision to terminate the RP-US Military Bases Agreement.

This is indeed reassuring news for Mrs. Arroyo because it opens the door for more quid pro quo between the Obama and Arroyo regimes. Remember when Mrs. Arroyo kept trailing Mr. Obama’s shadow even when he was just the Democratic presidential candidate, more so when he became US president, but couldn’t even get close to a handshake much less a photo-op?

Hopeful Filipinos thought this indicated that the new US president, unlike his predecessor, Mr. Bush, would indeed usher in a new era of a more enlightened foreign policy. Surely Mr. Obama had heard of Mrs. Arroyo’s shameful and bloody record as an illegitimate and despised ruler and would act accordingly.

Thus for many, it was with extreme disappointment that they received news of Mr. Obama’s personal phone call to Mrs. Arroyo last year in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling citing as unconstitutional US custody of US Corporal Daniel Smith, convicted rapist of a Filipina. It was obvious that the call was timed to secure a favorable outcome for the US in the judicial and diplomatic impasse.

As we had pointed out in our previous column, there was also more to the lavish dinners in Washington and New York than profligacy and callousness, coming as they did in the wake of the much sought-after audience with Mr. Obama. We believe that the GMA camp was in a euphoric celebratory mood because they felt they had won a most precious and coveted prize — assurance of continuing US support. But that was not without its price. Doubtless, it was won at the cost of Philippine sovereignty.

For the Filipino people, the signal is that the US is not going to lift a finger to stop or even just rein in its anointed “anti-terrorist” surrogate in the region. When Mr. Obama declared in his inaugural speech “to those leaders around the globe … who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history…”, it seems he had not meant he would not be standing by their side. BusinessWorld/Posted by Bulatlat.com

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