Reading your post has greatly saddened me and almost makes me think that I’d been wholly mistaken and unjustifiably optimistic these last few years in thinking that all the Filipino people need is time and breathing room to, once and for all, distance themselves from their colonial roots & mindset (BTW, I consider the entire 21-year Marcos regime–regardless of any nationalistic posturing he may have indulged in–together with the administrations the preceded it to have been part and parcel of those very same colonial roots & mindset) and to discover the power they have in their hands to shape a future by and for themselves. Events in the last decade have gone a long way to disabuse me of this (obviously) misguided thought process. This letter to Obama, however, written by self-appointed “leading lights” of Philippine governance, take the cake. Reading the text of said letter and how it purports to speak for the entire body of the Filipino electorate, I am left confused, disappointed and saddened by the image of Filipinos it presents. It makes us sound nothing less than a bunch of “servants” from some backwater client state soliciting an all-beneficent “amo” to save us and mediate our problems for us. It comes off as nothing less than a de facto admission that we Filipinos are truly and irrevocably incapable of solving our own problems and have been left with no recourse but to go begging, hat in hand yet again, to the great all-knowing, all-powerful American “amo”, in the hope that he would save us, poor helpless Filipinos, tell us, their ignorant, powerless “little brown brothers”, how to live and be and act.

At the end of the day, all I can say to the signatories of the Obama letter is: Bigyan n’yo naman kaming mga Pilipino ng kahit kaunting kahihiyan. And if you can’t, then speak for yourselves.

bagong adventure, bakit ba hindi?
kayo, gusto ninyo diyan, eh di ganoon.
ako… maraming adventure sa mundo, larga muna ako.

…
At kung takot ka na hindi na bumalik, problema mo iyon, ganoon talaga ang mundo.

incorrect – it’s not running away – it’s called bailing out of a sinking ship. there’s a point where bravado becomes sheer stupidity.
there’s always the option living in the Philippines.. but still with the tails between your legs.
overseas.. or philippines… same same tails between the legs – at least, when you are overseas you don’t get to see the idiocy of pinoys in the homeland
 
 

Despite the abuse some of us Pinoys hurl at them, the American people remain as our friends. You may not be a friend to the politicians in Washington DC but the vast majority of Americans can be your friends. You want to explain your situation, concerns and troubles to friends? You write them a letter.

Hey, didn’t you guys had the US bases closed?

The American people, fair and conscious of defending their liberties and being the electorate of Barack Obama have the right to inform their president about the dictatorial tendencies of Mrs Arroyo. We Filipinos will have to do our work on our own, on Philippine soil.

What makes you think that the US CIA/NSA and the Dept of State has not compiled a detailed dossier (education, biography, even credit history, the last phone calls made today) on the Arroyos and their associates – all the way to their poodles? – it ain’t Manila no more baby… yabba dabba doo

Constructive perspective. Most Americans are self absorbed with consuming, raising families, working and vacationing. They don’t really know the Philippines at all. They have no axes to grind, as Filipinos do.

Philippine independence has nothing at all to do with the US. Nothing. Nada. Zilch-negative. It is entirely up to the Philippines. Ending the blame game, stepping out of the victim role, accepting responsibility; these are important steps toward true independence. The US can’t do that for the Philippines. Nor can the US step back from pushing what it sees as its own interests. Where US and Philippine interests collide, it is up to the Philippines to be forthright and determined.

Begging and blaming should be left to the North Koreans.

Whack . . .

Joe

anyway, now that the meeting proceeded as it has, anybody care to dissect?

The American people, fair and conscious of defending their liberties and being the electorate of Barack Obama have the right to inform their president about the dictatorial tendencies of Mrs Arroyo. We Filipinos will have to do our work on our own, on Philippine soil.

The president should try running again for president in the 2010 presidential election if she’s really intent on continuing to serve the people and country.

It will take only some simple steps to make it legal.