US envoy optimistic RP-US ties will hold

It is a relationship that was built to endure.

The United States Embassy in Manila expressed optimism yesterday that relations between the Philippines and the US will survive the Angelo de la Cruz affair.

US Embassy charge d’affaires Joseph Mussomeli said both Washington and Manila would remain steadfast allies despite "serious disagreements" over the Philippines decision to pull its peacekeeping contingent out of Iraq to save De la Cruz’s life.

"I think we (the Philippines and the US) can manage — that’s for sure," Mussomeli after he was asked to comment on President Arroyo’s state of the nation address (SONA) yesterday afternoon, which she began by defending her decision to pull the Philippine contingent out of Iraq a month before its tour of duty was to end.

De la Cruz, a truck driver for a Saudi Arabia-based firm, was abducted by Iraqi militants in the Iraqi city of Fallujah while he was making a delivery. He was held hostage for 17 days.

The Iraqi militants demanded the immediate pullout of the Philippine humanitarian contingent there or else De la Cruz would be beheaded.

The Philippine government has come under intense criticism from Australia, the US and Iraqi analysts who said the pullout of the Philippine and Spanish contingents from Iraq has "empowered" the Iraqi militants.

Mrs. Arroyo began and devoted a significant segment of her SONA to De la Cruz’s case, saying her decision showed that the government cares more about Filipino lives than "international acclaim."

"Why was Angelo de la Cruz saved? Because I stuck to my oath," she said. "Since I first became president in 2001, my declared foreign policy focus has been to protect the vital interests of the nation, including our eight million overseas Filipinos."

"I cannot apologize for being a protector of my people," she added, saying the Philippine contingent was about to complete its tour of duty in Iraq on Aug. 20 anyway, so "a difference of a few weeks... could not justify the sacrifice of a human life."

She also said she could not put the country’s 1.5 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East at risk "by making them part of a war."

Mrs. Arroyo said Filipinos have not only fought terrorists and the "enemy" on their own soil, but have also sent troops who fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and sent peacekeepers to countries rent by brutal internal wars, like East Timor, Kosovo and Liberia.

However, Mussomeli reacted to Mrs. Arroyo’s statements by saying that "this is not about international acclaim but international commitment."