Carpio and Albert del Rosario Cry Wolf — Again! Who Will Be fooled?
MOST western media and Philippine writers are silent on the extent of US interference and the cost of their meddling in other nations’ domestic affairs. But they are quick to report on mere allegations from anonymous sources, called “highly trusted intelligence sources,” alleging “possible” Russian or Chinese interference in other countries’ national elections.
The fearmongers are again former Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio and Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, who conveniently echo the same ”possible” Chinese interference in our 2022 elections and call against a “Manchurian candidate.” They are quoted by Inquirer, Rappler, Philippine Star, etc., even when they have not provided any shred of evidence except for allegations from some “most reliable international entity” — the entity that faked the weapons of mass destruction to justify invading Iraq, which left over a million civilians dead?
What does history and the evidence show for any intelligent person to see?
Carpio, del Rosario, what examples of Chinese interference in elections can you point out to compare with these documented cases of US interference abroad and in the Philippines?
The world’s current crisis of teetering on possible nuclear war in the Ukraine is a direct result of one such intervention, when the US helped overthrow the government of Yanukovych to install one in favor of the US. Sen. John McCain even went to Kyiv and joined the stage in Maidan Square during a mass rally.
The US in 2019 assisted the overthrow and attempted to kidnap the elected Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro with the help of rebels who trained with US Navy Seals and who were transported by US helicopters. Failing at this, the US nevertheless “installed as president” Juan Guaido, took over the Venezuelan embassy in the US and the bank accounts of the country, creating a chaotic collapsed Venezuelan state.
Governments that are unpopular and repressive but in favor of the US are not overthrown but supported — despite genocides, ethnic and human rights repressions, and murders.
Of governments that are not pro US, oppositions are funded, given awards and treated with major coverage by international media, and helped in organizing even to the point of actual military actions.
Actual examples of US direct interventions?
The US helped the overthrow of the regime of dictator Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whom they supported for decades to the tune of billions of dollars a year. But as an unintended consequence, this led to Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power, which the US supported a coup against — again. Now the US is back, this time supporting the military regime of Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Despite Human Rights Watch reporting “the worst incident of mass unlawful killings in Egypt’s recent history.”
These are but a few examples from dozens of countries the US intervened in, to the very removal and installation of governments. Yet Carpio, del Rosario, Jay Batongbacal of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, Rommel Jude Ong of the Ateneo School of Government, Renato de Castro of De La Salle University, Richard Javad Heydarian, and Rappler warn about “possible interferences” instead of the hundreds of actual cases, even in the Philippines… showing an ability to focus on speculation rather than the facts that can put into question the quality of one’s education… except perhaps for lawyers?
The same “concerned citizens” fail to raise a whisper on US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, and US magazines warn Filipinos on which candidates to fear, painting others as heroes, giving them massive media support, meetings with praise from US officials to favored candidates. The loudest “experts” do not know even the basic realities, histories and implications of those terms they mouth, such as “rules-based order,” “genocide,” international law, etc..
Conflicts of interest of Albert del Rosario
The media forum was organized by the Albert del Rosario Institute (ADRi), the same group that recently had US-based imaging company, Simularity, publicly misrepresent a photo of an Australian dredging ship in 2014 as a China ship dumping sewage into the West Philippine Sea. Somehow this fantasy narrative immediately became widely spread around the world. Simularity also based various allegations on specks of dots from alleged satellite images that the CEO Liz Derr herself was forced to admit she could not distinguish the nationalities of from the satellite photos.
Yes, we have a maritime dispute with China, but did we not have them with the US, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, Taiwan? Yet the supposed “patriots” focus only on China.
These “patriots” never bring up that the US and the UK gave away to Malaysia our claims to wealthy Sabah; they never bring up Malaysia training and funding the Mindanao rebellion, Vietnam taking over our islands and massively fishing in our territory, the US pointing live ammo guns at Filipino coast guard in Tubbataha, the US almost selling out of the Philippine sovereignty in Kuala Lumpur, the US watching with drones the Mamasapano massacre of 44 Filipinos in 2015, or the humiliation of a Philippine president being required permission from the US to allow visits to our own EDCA bases, etc… What is being hidden from us?
Why did Albert del Rosario and Ambassador Jose Cuisia, even while the mutual withdrawal in Scarborough was already nearly completed, suddenly allowed the US to solely negotiate with China without Philippine presence or even coordinated terms, and then blame China as reneging, when they did not even know what was going on?
In “Is US engineering regime changing in the Philippines?” Dr. Mark Valencia noted some Philippine politicians were proud of their CIA affiliations. President Magsaysay was coached and supported by the US. Various Philippine uprisings against a president had our military and officials asking approval from the US, which even routinely “gives instructions” to our government — asking to stop the then successful offensive against the Mindanao rebellion camp Abu Bakr under President Estrada, asking army chiefs to “withdraw support” from presidents, and asking our economic officials not to join AIIB, among others.
We should promote what helps the average Filipino best.
Reality dictates multiple dimensions of consideration are better than uninformed ones, and are better negotiated over time rather than inciting emotional, simplistic responses.
“Philippine 2022 Election amid US Cold War against China” by Geopolitical expert Dan Steinbock reveals: del Rosario’s think-tank, ADRi, “serves as a political lobby… It is joined with its parent Stratbase, which is linked with Bower Group and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a major US think-tank close to the State Department, Pentagon and Wall Street.”
“ADRi pledged it would ‘make China the issue of 2022.’… Del Rosario called on the Filipinos to ‘unite against Manchurian candidates,’ such as Marcos and Duterte. His evidence? Meeting with the Chinese ambassador. By such logic, whoever fosters US and Chinese trade and investment must be a traitor… It’s all by the ADRi design.”
Perhaps for smaller countries, allowing political meddling is better than the alternative of being directly invaded? Countries that the US cannot infiltrate “softly” are invaded to “protect human rights”: Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq, which saw over 1.5 million civilians dead. Others have sanctions imposed and economies crushed, e.g., Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. In others, conflicts are sown, as in Hongkong, Taiwan and Xinjiang.
Philippine candidates for the 2022 elections would do well to study history and wide analyses from different perspectives, to know what they are talking about and how to decide. Studying history is a discipline that is foundational to serving the Filipino people well.
Jan Albert Suing has been conducting policy research for both the public and private sectors, with some of his works published in “Population Ageing in the PH: Issues and Challenges,” and “Towards an ASEAN Parliament: Challenges and Prospects.”
Also published in Manila Times. We welcome logical feedback and possibly working together with compatible frameworks. (idsicenter@gmail.com)