On the Smith case and our cringing posture

The turnover of Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to the American Embassy by the Philippine government has given the opposition a new ammunition against PGMA. Transgression against Philippine sovereignty! Violation against the Constitution! They cried - a cry made louder by rejoinders from cause-oriented groups.

But what can PGMA do? A provision in the VFA the Philippine government signed with the US government provides for such action before a conviction against an American national has become final and executory. And the Smith case as decided by an RTC has yet to go through the upper courts before it can be ultimately resolved. The law is the law, the say. An agreement is an agreement, more so if this is a commitment with another country, America especially. Were we to disregard the VFA and have Smith confined in our jail the repercussion could be terrible.

Terrible because we would incur the ire of a country we cannot do without. Think of our economy. Even an intimation of sanction, albeit informal, from the US government, the inflow of American investment would immediately decline. This would be a fatal blow because such investment makes up a big bulk of the almost 2 billion dollar foreign direct investment in the country.

Think also of our loan windows. It is a fact that IMF and World Bank policies are influenced by the mood of US money men. Were such windows to be closed, where shall we turn to, to beef up our unbalanced budget? Major development projects most of which depend on foreign loans would be hindered and the negative impact upon our productivity would be disastrous. Dearth of money would rub into the value of our peso and inflation would result. With high prices and high unemployment rate, who would bear the brunt of the hard time but the middle-level wage earners and the poor?

Think also of our foreign workers. Hundreds of thousands of them are based in America. Our nurses, teachers, medical practitioners and technical expects as well as other professionals are earning dollars there, money which makes up a big chunk of the more than 10 billion dollars remitted annually to this country. If US authorities would tighten restrictions on the entry of Filipino workers, dollar inflow would slacken. This of course would affect the value of our peso and its domino effects on our economic activities would be tragic.

Think also of the fight against terrorism. It is public knowledge that America has been our provider in terms of weaponry, intelligence, and most important, in terms of tactical training for our foot soldiers. Without American assistance how can we stop the incursion of terrorist groups? In fact, the Balikatan exercises which constitute a major feature of the Philippine-American anti-terrorist strategy is directly tied to a smooth bilateral relation between these two countries. Disturb this relationship and the Balikatan would be a thing of the past. The cancellation of this exercise following the incarceration of Corporal Smith in Makati jail shows how dependent this project is upon American goodwill.

The opposition, however, and their cause oriented cohorts refuse to look at the Smith problem on its broader perspective. As usual, nationalism is invoked and sovereignty is raised as an issue. They may sound patriotic in doing so. They may appear on higher moral grounds. But to disregard the reality of our situation insofar as our relationship with the US is concerned is a big mistake - unless we place national pride and sovereignty on higher plane than socio-economic survival. Cuba is doing this, and look how it stands development-wise. Nicaragua is on the same track as Myanmar and North Korea are, and look how miserable their plight has been.

In the next few months with the election fever heating up, the Smith case will be repeatedly brought to mind to discredit the PGMA administration. Her detractors will harp on her government's cringing posture towards' Uncle Sam's foreign policy. They will cite her alleged failure to defend the country's interest vis-à-vis that of another country. In fact, they will even accuse her of violating a constitutional provision and initiate another impeachment charge.

Yet the average Filipino knows PGMA and all of us are helpless when it comes to policy conflicts with Uncle Sam. In the arena of such conflict sovereignty and nationalism are hollow terms in the exigency of socio-economic survival. The truth is, we may be politically independent from America but our economic umbilical cord is tied to that country. Perhaps, in the distant future when this country shall have attained full development we can begin to distance ourselves from America. Perhaps… just perhaps.

* * *

Email: [email protected]