U.S. groups caution White House on BBM official visit

The groups warn that America’s declared  “ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines” should not devolve into an uncritical engagement with the Marcos administration. REUTERS PHOTO

WASHINGTON, DC – As President Joe Biden is set to meet with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on May 1, some U.S.- based organizations released a “message,” saying they hope America’s declared  “ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines” will not devolve into an uncritical engagement with the Marcos administration.

While stating that they understand that in pursuing his diplomatic agenda Biden must deal with his official counterpart in the Philippines as a matter of course, “the official visitor, with whom (he) intends to pursue ‘joint efforts’” in areas such as “upholding international law,” promoting “inclusive prosperity” and “ensuring human rights,” is arriving “with an inherited political baggage that could get in the way.”

The signatories state that they are eager to see the White House enlist Marcos in ensuring human rights, by convincing him to

•reverse his decision to break off contact with the International Criminal Court for persisting on probing “his unsteady ally and predecessor” Rodrigo Duterte’s lethal war on drugs;

•stop the “red tagging” of government leaders, social activists, labor leaders, among others;

•and to end the “fraudulent prosecution” of ex-human rights official and Senator Leila De Lima who has been in prison for six years, “despite the collapse of the Duterte administration’s bogus drug charges after several key witnesses recanted, saying they were coerced by Duterte’s senior officials into fabricating lies against her.”

The message also notes that Marcos’ visit to the United States is his second in one year, and “part of the furious pace of diplomatic travels he has embarked on, purportedly to ‘reintroduce the Philippines to the world.’ It is really an attempt to reintroduce a whitewashed image of the Marcos family’s shameful legacy.”

It ends stating the “hope that the Biden Administration, in pursuing its geopolitical aims, will not end up becoming a party to this repulsive project, inadvertently or otherwise.”

The full statement follows below:

Message to the White House on PH President Marcos’ Official Visit, from Concerned Filipinos and US Citizens

President Joe Biden will meet with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on May 1 “to reaffirm the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines” and “discuss efforts to strengthen the longstanding U.S.-Philippines alliance,” said the White House announcement of Mr. Marcos’s impending official visit.

As Filipinos and US citizens, we understand that in advancing the United States’ diplomatic agenda President Biden must deal with his official counterpart in the Philippines as a matter of course. Nonetheless, we hope that America’s “ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines” will not devolve into an uncritical engagement with the Marcos administration.

The official visitor with whom President Biden intends to pursue “joint efforts” to “uphold international law,” “deepen economic ties and promote inclusive prosperity,” and “ensure respect for human rights,” comes with an inherited political baggage that could get in the way.

We are eager to see the White House enlist Mr. Marcos to a “joint effort to ensure human rights,” because he has yet to show a hint of enthusiasm for that cause. Indeed, in this regard, we urge the White House to help convince Mr. Marcos to reverse his administration’s declared disengagement with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to which the Philippines is a signatory. He recently broke relations with the Court because it persisted on probing his predecessor and unsteady ally Rodrigo Duterte’s lethal “war on drugs,” in which thousands of impoverished users, innocent citizens, and mainly low-level dealers were summarily executed by the police.

We also appeal to the White House to urge Mr. Marcos to stop the state’s practice of “red-tagging,” the arbitrary branding of government critics and social activists as “communist,” making labor organizers, journalists, clergy members, and indigenous leaders targets of arbitrary arrest and even political assassination.

The US State Department’s latest human rights report states that red-tagging “persists,” and the Marcos administration’s position on the practice is “unclear.” Mr. Marcos has yet to make any decisive moves toward stopping the harassment and intimidation of government critics and preventing the steady rise of local political violence.

We also urge the White House to convince Mr. Marcos to stop the fraudulent prosecution of former Philippine Commission on Human Rights Chair and Senator Leila de Lima, who has languished in prison for six years despite the collapse of the Duterte administration’s bogus drug charges after several key witnesses recanted, saying they were coerced by Duterte’s senior officials into fabricating lies against her.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers, including Democratic Senators Edward Markey, Dick Durbin, Chris Coons, Patrick Leahy, and Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Marsha Blackburn, has tirelessly appealed to the Philippine government for Ms. De Lima’s release, to no avail.

We are heartened that the White House intends to explore joint efforts at stemming climate change and environmental degradation because, in the Philippines, politically well-connected profiteers continue to ravage the Philippines’ natural assets with illegal or unregulated mining and logging — with impunity.

We do hope that the White House will help Mr. Marcos see the importance of “inclusive” economic growth, because the Philippines has one of the highest rates of income inequality in East Asia: the top 1 percent of earners together hog 17 percent of national income, with only 14 percent being shared by bottom 50 percent. Inequality in the Philippines today is aggravated by the rising prices of staples, worsened by the hoarding and smuggling of agricultural goods by, again, well connected perpetrators. Some journalists have named the current first lady’s brother as one of them. Theoretically, Mr. Marcos should be able to stop this criminal activity quickly because, curiously, one of his first moves as president-elect was to assign himself to the post of Agriculture Secretary.

Should the Biden-Marcos talks touch on US economic aid, which would be much appreciated by the Filipino people, we encourage the US government to keep a watchful eye on its assistance as the Philippine government is notoriously riddled with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Mr. Marcos should be familiar with this persistent problem. During his father’s dictatorship, his family amassed unexplained wealth ranging from $5 to $13 billion, ill-gotten from the national coffer, including from foreign loans that Filipinos are still paying off today. The Marcos family still refuses to pay the Philippine Government $3 billion in estate taxes.

Moreover, US District Court and Court of Appeals records show that Mr. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his mother, Imelda Marcos, face a contempt judgment requiring them to pay $353.6 million – the largest ever award for a contempt case — for violating a US court order not to use up their assets, which have been earmarked as compensation for victims of the Marcos dictatorship. In fact, President Marcos can visit President Biden without being arrested only because he enjoys diplomatic immunity as a head of state, as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman confirmed.

These are just some of the inconvenient realities stashed in Mr. Marcos’ political baggage. His official visit to the United States is as good a time as any to remind the US public that his rise to the presidency is the fruit of at least three decades of his family’s efforts to recast his father’s dictatorship as “a golden age” for Filipinos.

President Marcos has continued to insist on this delusional narrative, which tries to obscure his father’s notorious record of arbitrarily imprisoning some 70,000 political opponents, torturing 34,000 dissidents and killing some 3,200 citizens, according to Amnesty International. It is an appalling record matched only by his family’s well-documented plunder of public assets.

President Marcos’s visit to the United States is his second in one year. It is part of the furious pace of diplomatic travels he has embarked on, purportedly to “reintroduce the Philippines to the world.” It is really an attempt to reintroduce a whitewashed image of the Marcos family’s shameful legacy.

We hope that the Biden Administration, in pursuing its geopolitical aims, will not end up becoming a party to this repulsive project, inadvertently or otherwise.

Edwin Batongbacal, AKBAYAN North America

Irene Natividad, Co-Chair, ASIAN AMERICAN ACTION (AAA) Fund, Washington DC

Ago Pedalizo, FILIPINO AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS ALLIANCE, San Francisco

Mariano Santos, Publisher, PINOY NEWSMAGAZINE, Chicago

Dr. Robin Broad, Professor, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, Washington DC

John Cavanagh, INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES, Washington DC

Tim McGloin and Paul Bloom, ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY NETWORK