Unrest in the Philippines
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Americans have owed the Filipino people a blood debt since World War II. In 1946, when we made the Philippines independent, we didn’t repay the debt. Actually, we did ourselves a favor. The Philippines were devastated by the war. Freeing the country absolved American taxpayers of having to rebuild their former colony.
Even today millions of Filipinos live in poverty hard for Americans to image. They fish to eat; if the fish don’t bite, they don’t eat. Peasants don’t own the land they farm. City dwellers can’t get a full day’s work. The Aquino government must deal with all this and ward off would-be dictators from the right and left.
As a sailor, I served in the Philippines. I note how often news reports mention our “strategic bases,” as if these were our chief consideration. They should not be. Our military could manage without the bases. But America’s moral leadership could not survive the downfall of Aquino’s constitutional government.
If America values constitutional government, let’s institute a “Marshall Plan” to help the constitutional government in the Philippines.
TOM ABATE
Bayside
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