A global alliance of migrant Filipinos dubbed the Obama-Arroyo meeting as another raw deal- in- the -making that will guarantee continued assurance for the United State's interest in the Philippines in exchange for President Arroyo's way out from the wrath of the Filipino people.
"President Arroyo's main agenda in meeting President Obama is how she will be assured of her safety from prosecution once her term ends in 2010. Such assurance could include the US nod to her plan to be prime minister through charter change after the election," explains Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International.
Martinez expects that President Arroyo will in turn assure that US interest will continue to be its prime concern. The deal, Martinez alleged, will include not only the revisions in economic provision in the Constitution favoring foreign businesses but also of its continued support to the US War on Terror through the Visiting Forces Agreement and its Anti-Terrorism Law.
"President Obama has made change his mantra along with the calls for respecting human rights and abhorrence to despotic leaders. For him to shake hands with President Arroyo, who represents all that is opposite to his alleged principles, means only that much is at stake for the US. In this looming shady deal, only one thing is certain: the Filipino people who will once again be left in the losing end." declared Martinez.
Migrante added that there is no way that President Obama can come out clean after the said meeting. The group suspects that President Arroyo has already prepared a spin on how she will politically benefit after the photo opportunity with President Obama.
"President Arroyo is a shrewd political opportunist. She will shamelessly capitalize on the said meeting as her shroud of protection and blessing for her diabolical plans. This is the very same reason why she made her SONA so vague on her political plans," Martinez added.
Despite its avowed pessimism of the meeting, however, the group still stated their message to President Obama on his meeting with President Arroyo.
"The change we want is for the US domination in the Philippines to end so that we can finally chart our own future as a genuine sovereign nation. The change we want is for us to harvest the wealth of our nation and rebuild a society where families are not broken up by force migration. If President Obama is not ready to accept this kind of change, then the only change that will be revealed in the near future is the change on his true political color," Martinez concluded. ###
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