Politics and diplomatics mix

I can just imagine how uncomfortable it would be for ambassador Lauro Baja, our Philippine permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) in New York, as President Arroyo comes face-to-face with him this Sept.14 to address the UN General Assembly.

Amb. Baja is the father-in-law of Grace Barbers, the only sister of Surigao del Norte Rep.Robert Ace Barbers, who made a big announcement last week of his having signed the impeachment complaint against Mrs.Arroyo to help fasttrack its transmittal to the Senate.

Browsing through files of The Philippine Star, I stumbled on several news items in the past reporting that Barbers led a campaign among his fellow House solons to sign a resolution asking President Arroyo to retain Baja in his UN post.

Barbers took this preemptive action when statements emanated from certain Palace officials that the President was set to appoint former Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert to the UN post. Baja, at that time, was already overstaying in his post at the UN.

Since Baja is a fellow career diplomat, Albert did not make a fuss when President Arroyo gave in to the Barbers-led lobby of Congressmen.

And now there are talks of another political appointment in the diplomatic service, specifically for outgoing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov.Paruk Hussin.

A medical doctor by profession and former Muslim rebel leader, Hussin is being rewarded the diplomatic post for keeping his peace when asked to withdraw from his plans to run for re-election as Governor in the last ARMM elections earlier this month. Hussin is being considered to replace Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Bahnarim Guinomla, a career official whose tour of duty ends this year.

It is said that the police and military establishments have been politicized. But the diplomatic service has also had its share of woes in being turned into political largesse for any administration in power. So politics and diplomatics do mix unlike oil and water.

Anyway, Mrs.Arroyo’s scheduled trip to NY would do her good emotionally and physically as it would take her out of the country for a short while and give her a respite from her enemies and detractors.

While in NY, she will be able to see and reunite with her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and eldest son, controversial Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo and his wife Angela and their two granddaughters, Gloria Mikaela and her new born baby sister.

The First Gentleman and Mikey and his family have been staying in their family residence in San Francisco, California since they left last month at the height of the alleged jueteng payola charges hurled against them in the Senate.

The First Gentleman was earlier this month able to come home even for a brief period to attend the burial of an elder sister who had passed away and also for their wedding anniversary which he and the President spent quietly with the rest of the First Family.

Mikey, on the other hand, has been on an extended official absence from his duties at the House of Representatives where the debate on the impeachment proceedings against his mother is raging in the committee of justice.

And while she is away from the country, President Arroyo is expected to designate anew Vice President Noli de Castro "to act for and in her behalf." As her constitutional successor, Vice President De Castro takes over from Mrs.Arroyo should she be removed from office through impeachment.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, as the so-called "little President," holds fort at Malacanang Palace as President Arroyo’s direct link to the country while she is in abroad.

In the midst of the on-going impeachment proceedings in Congress, Mrs. Arroyo would be accompanied to the UN meeting in NY by the numbers 3 and 4 leaders in the hierarchy of our officials in the country, namely, Senate president Franklin Drilon and Speaker Jose De Venecia. That is, if the official travel plans are not changed.

And talks are rife that the administration-controlled House of Representatives will be able to "kill" the impeachment case against President Arroyo before she leaves for abroad, first to Saudi Arabia and then to NY.

It is not far-fetched that Mrs.Arroyo would be able to meet in NY former US President Bill Clinton, a classmate in Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

In case the "kill" impeachment plans do not succeed, Mrs.Arroyo will have the opportunity to ask her classmate Bill his secret on how he won the impeachment case against him while he was in the White House.

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So within the next two weeks, I’m sure, the battle for the hearts and minds of the Filipino people will shift to high gears. In fact, spin doctors from both the opposition and the administration have noticebly stepped up their propaganda machines.

But apparently, this is the least of President Arroyo’s worries as she leaves for abroad and the Palace to Ermita’s care.

It takes an expert to spot or detect immediately a propaganda from legitimate news, information, or facts coming out in media. Take it from Ermita who has a simple formula to analyze propaganda, to determine truth from the lies, or the facts from the fallacies.

Ermita calls his formula under the codename S.C.A.M.E., which is actually an acronym for the following: S for source of information; C for content of the message; A for authority of the source of information; M for media where the reports came out; and, E for effect on people or intended recepient of the news.

Ermita says one must look at each of the S.C.A.M.E to evaluate and analyze the alleged information being presented as news or fact before taking them hook, line and sinker.

In these days of modern communications, he pointed out, breaking reports or news can be easily verified and checked immediately.

With a very a media-friendly and accessible Executive Secretary, a simple telephone call to him easily squelches any rumors as one gets it directly from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Ermita likens black propaganda to someone riding in a moving vehicle and spits in the air and the spit flies back in the face of the spitter.

Ermita, himself a psy-war expert when he was still in the military, knows what he is talking about and this is his edge over propaganda operators from the other side.

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