Content from the United States diplomatic cables leak has depicted the Philippines and related subjects extensively. The leak, which began on 28 November 2010, occurred when the website of WikiLeaks — an international new media non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources and news leaks — started to publish classified documents of detailed correspondence — diplomatic cables — between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions around the world. Since the initial release date, WikiLeaks is releasing further documents every day. 1,796 of the 251,287 diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks are from the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines.[1][2]
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A confidential cable from the United States Embassy in Beijing in 2009 cautioned that China might put “economic pressure” on the Philippines in the next three decades to rethink its ties with the United States.[3]
Australian diplomats described “China as paranoid and the Philippines as a 'basket case' that could become a haven for terrorists”. The memo of October 2008 talks between Australia and the United States gave a scathing assessment of the 'troubled' Asia-Pacific region. The Sydney Morning Herald reported top foreign official David Ritchie referring to “an increase in illegal immigration from Indonesia... continuing political instability in Thailand; the basket case of the Philippines. The continuing burden of providing security and development assistance to East Timor (and) problems of bad governance in many of the Pacific Island states”.[4]
Fellow diplomat Graham Fletcher told US officials China was “running rings around Japan” in Southeast Asia but was plagued by internal issues. He said “while China might look impressive externally its internal politics were characterised by nervousness, paranoia and uncertainty”.[4]
In a cable from Beijing in 2007, then Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Eric John in his meetings with two senior Chinese diplomats called President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as “good leader” and said “she is still in control”. Also in the cable, John and Hu Zhengyue, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Asian Affairs that poverty was a “key challenge” and that corruption is the “second significant situation” in the country, and said it “cannot do much about that”.[5][6][7]
The United States commended Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's foreign policy towards Australia and New Zealand as well as the signing of a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Australian Defense Force.
The United States praised National Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz for his commitment to reforming the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the country's counter-insurgency program.
In a cable called “Malaysia probes Misuari ties to Abu Sayyaf group”, dated Nov. 28, 2001, the Philippines was keen on letting Malaysia handle the “Nur Misuari problem”, hoping that it could convince Kuala Lumpur to incarcerate the former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor by linking him to the Abu Sayyaf terror group, according to a confidential 2001 cable from the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. It said that Manila was “sharing intelligence on Misuari’s possible role in the Sipadan island kidnappings (in 2000) with the hope that a resulting investigation would keep the rebel leader incarcerated in a Malaysian jail. A (Malaysian) foreign ministry contact said Manila was alerting the Malaysian authorities to Misuari’s connections to the Abu Sayyaf and the Sipadan kidnappings”.[8]
Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo was reported in January 2007 to be seeking foreign assistance from several European countries to help the Philippine government solve a series of extrajudicial killings. In a letter to the ambassadors of those countries, Romulo said that the assistance would help [ease] the work of the Melo Commission, which had found that the Philippine military was involved in many of the recent unsolved murders of leftist activists in the Philippines.[9]
On April 25, 2011, the Philippine government responded to the leak by saying “The European Union favorably responded (to Romulo's request) through the PH-EU Justice Support Program which ended on April 7”.[9]
On December 5, 2007, a cable said Iran, the object of severe financial sanctions by the US, the United Nations and the European Union, might be attempting to transact with banks in the Far East “especially China and the Philippines”. It also said Israel was trying to locate specific banks and accounts.[10]
A Halloween costume party hosted by a Saudi prince “hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using sadiqi, a locally-made moonshine.... It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact 'working girls', not uncommon for such parties”.[11][12]
The United States wanted the Philippines to prosecute Somali pirates who some four years ago hijacked a Japanese-owned vessel with Filipino sailors on board. In a letter to US State Department dated Nov. 7, 2007, former US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said she had discussed with Foreign Affairs officials in Manila about pushing for the prosecution of the Somali pirates. But Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) executive director Crescente Relacion rejected Kenney’s call because of deficiencies in legal standing.[13][14]
A report said divers in the Philippines found uranium and tried to sell the nuclear material to other countries. The objects used to belong to the United States. Uranium is a fuel used to create a nuclear weapon. The report stemmed from a diplomatic cable with the title “Possible Nuclear Smuggling Incident/Offer of Nuclear or Other Radioactive Material” dated November 21, 2007.[15]
The United States suspected Saudi Arabian ambassador to the Philippines Muhammad Amin Waly of potential involvement in funding terrorists. A security aide of then-US president George W. Bush raised concerns in a private meeting with Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, in Jeddah in 2007, the secret cable showed. Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Terrorism Francis Townsend cited Waly's intervention to secure the release of two members of an Islamic charity detained in the Philippines, the cable showed. The group was suspected of funnelling funds to Al-Qaeda-linked groups based in the southern Philippines.[16][17][18]
The head of Australia's top intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments (ONA), told American diplomats in October 2008 that al-Qaeda “ultimately has failed to achieve the strategic leadership role it sought within the Islamic world”. The leaked US cable also quoted ONA as saying that the Philippines' counter-terrorism campaign was on an “ongoing downward slide”. ONA cited the collapse of the government's peace initiatives with rebel groups in southern Philippines, making the area “the new regional incubator of terrorist jihadis”.[19]
The United States has described the Philippines’ top diplomat to the United Nations as a determined leader but “naive”, referring to Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN, Libran Cabactulan, who was elected president of the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference (RevCon) from May 3 to 28 this year at the UN headquarters in New York.[20]
It was disclosed earlier this week that the Vatican is “largely supportive” of genetically modified foods (GMOs) in fighting world hunger but not everyone in the Catholic Church may be comfortable with the Vatican's acceptance of GMOs as an alternative approach for countries to increase agriculture production. This was referred to in a joke about the possibility of the church in Philippines to “go into schism” over the Vatican's acceptance of GMOs.[21]
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