American interest vs US interest

Since we cannot give you a report on the visit of US Pres. Barrack Obama, we can only talk about the topics supposedly on the table that Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III would discuss with the US President. Our favorite topic of all is the President's so-called "anti-corruption" campaign that he is supposedly waging inside his brain. Why is this issue on the table with the US President escapes me? Now unless the anti-corruption issue was a request by the US government, then that is another story.

It's just intriguing that Pres. Aquino and Pres. Obama would talk about corruption in the Philippines. I'm sure that the Obama Administration has been briefed with what's going on in the Philippines on matters of corruption and it is not a rosy picture. The National Security Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency apparatus of the US is one of the most active intelligence networks in the world. That means, whatever Pres. PNoy tells Pres. Obama that came from his own Yellow propaganda machine, I'm sure that Mr. Obama knows the real score and would not take the President's word for it.

Now unless Pres. Obama is stupid (or pretends not to know what is happening inside the Philippines), I'm sure that by now these intelligence agencies have already briefed him about the on-going pork barrel scam that has spread like a vicious cancer in the legislative branch of the Philippine government, where the majority of senators and a great number of congressmen supposedly figured in the list of corrupt politicians as written in the list of pork barrel scam queen, Janet Lim-Napoles.

While we haven't yet seen this list, Department of Budget and Management Sec. Florencio "Butch" Abad already issued a disclaimer that he is not the "pork king". So if he is not the pork king, who is it then? The biggest question of course is, whether or not Pres. PNoy's name is in that list. After all, he was a congressman and senator before he became president. But then no one is sure until the Napoles list is made public and only then will we know who really is involved in this pork mess.

For sure, Pres. Obama knows that the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program is now with the Supreme Court awaiting their ruling. Now if the SC rules against the DAP, then Pres. PNoy could be in a whole lot of trouble that could cause his government to fall. Remember, Pres. Aquino used the DAP to "bribe" the senators to impeach CJ Renato Corona. Like it or not, bribery is still a crime in this country.

For many Filipinos, who now knows the character of Pres. PNoy Aquino, they strongly believe that if the list held by Janet Lim Napoles contains only the names of oppositionists, those names would have long appeared in mainstream media by now. But as Department of Justice Sec. Leila De Lima pointed out that the list of names that she has is "explosive", it only gives you an idea of what she could mean that it is so explosive - it could cause the collapse of the Aquino presidency. So can we surmise that on Pres. Aquino's agenda with Pres. Obama could be some kind of political asylum for him? I'm sure this part of the agenda is totally secret.

Of course, the US President is here because he is expected to sign that so-called Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the Philippine government for the temporary access by the US military to use our military facilities. Mainly, the former US military bases in Subic Bay and in Clark Air Force Base. Of course, this new military deal is opposed by the leftist Filipinos who through all these years have been staunchly anti-American in their ideology that came from the unlamented Soviet Union.

But on the positive side for the US are colonially minded Filipinos who until now are mesmerized by the US. They are so staunchly pro-American to the point that the US government has taken us Filipinos for granted. Being a former American colony who considers ourselves as America's "Brown Brothers" hasn't helped us gain anything from the US government. The last time, we got that US$454 Millennium fund for as long as the Philippines approve the Reproductive Health Law. In my book, these are unnecessary strings that the US government should not attach to US aid.

Today we are in what many pundits call "The Asian Century" but unfortunately, the Philippines are not even on the radar screen in this endeavor. So whether you like it or not, this US "Pivot to Asia" would still include the role of China within the US interest because whether you believe it or not, China is a bigger trading partner to the US than the Philippines. This is the bottom line. Lest you already forgot, more important than US-RP Relations is American overseas interest and whether you believe it or not, China is far more important to the US than the Philippines.

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