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June 12th, 2008
Obama Greets Filipinos Worldwide on Philippine Independence Day
Posted by Angelica JongcoChicago, IL — Senator Obama released the following statement today on Philippine Independence Day.
"After hundreds of years of struggle for independence, the Filipino people declared their independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, and the first Philippine republic was born.
“The Philippines has been a staunch partner of the United States through the Cold War and the war against terrorism. In part because of our shared history, we cannot ignore the fact that the Philippines continues to confront many difficult challenges, including persistent poverty, natural disasters, and political division. But as a nation rich in natural and human resources, with a proud legacy as the first democracy in Asia, the Philippines also holds great opportunities and hope for the future. An ongoing challenge of the 21st century will be to ensure that these opportunities to make a better life are open to all. I look forward to working with the Filipino people and their government, as part of the global community, to combat poverty and generate wealth, build healthy and educated communities, and change the odds for generations to come.”
"Particularly important to note on this day is the continuing struggle of Filipino World War II veterans to receive the veterans benefits they rightfully deserve. During World War II, Filipino and American troops fought bravely together under some of the most trying conditions suffered by any forces during that conflict, forging a historic bond between our two nations and their people. Filipinos displayed great courage alongside American soldiers at Bataan and Corregidor, only to be denied their just benefits by our government. The Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007 would honor the service of all U.S. veterans, including these Filipino World War II heroes. The Senate passed this bill last April. I urge my colleagues in Congress to take note of this day to honor the heroic service of Filipino World War II veterans by finally turning this important legislation into law.
"On this anniversary, we also must recognize the enormous contributions of generations of Filipino immigrants to building a more vibrant United States of America. Indeed, more than 60 years after World War II, Filipino-Americans continue to serve brilliantly and bravely as members of our fighting forces. I grew up in Hawaii, where Filipinos have had an enormous positive impact on the culture and economy. As dedicated military and civil servants, lawyers and bankers, artists, engineers and entrepreneurs, agricultural and industrial laborers, healthcare providers and customer service workers, caretakers for our elderly and youth, Filipino Americans—4 million strong—have enriched our country, embodied our nation’s highest ideals, and reflected the very best that the Philippines has to offer.
"Today, I extend my warm wishes to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the people of the Philippines. Let us join with Filipinos worldwide and Filipino Americans to celebrate Philippine Independence Day. Mabuhay!"
June 13th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Thanks pareng barack! see you in white house
June 13th, 2008 at 7:35 am
obamadude, i know you’ll win! keep up the good work! i know that you’ll be a good president.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:16 am
obama for president! mabuhay!
June 13th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I’m a Fil-Am, a christian and I’m proud to be a conservative. I’m not supporting Liberal Barack Hussein Obama.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Hi Nora.
I really hope that you’re not implying that the only reason you’re not voting for Barack is that his middle name is Hussein–one of the most popular names around the globe. By that standard how many Filipino Americans would be left in the dust by the misfortune of a choice their parents’ made? (I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article where Filipino parents had named their child Mussolini!)
I’m Christian too–raised in a strict Filipino Catholic family by very conservative parents. This year, they will be voting for a Democrat for the first time because they believe Barack shares their values more than John McCain. Much of Christian teaching is about charity towards those in need, promoting peace and dignity around the globe, and that the ‘powerless’ shall inherit the earth. Barack’s platform to combat global poverty, provide greater opportunities through education, end the war in Iraq, put immigrants on a path to citizenship, address global climate change, and empower the grassroots among us–fit squarely within these teachings.
John Sidney McCain has opposed an end to the war in Iraq (at untold cost to human life) and joked about bombing Iran, supported torture against detainees (when he used to oppose it before he ran for president), opposed the Equal Pay Act for women guaranteeing fair wages for you and me, allowed his campaign to be run by insiders and people beholden to foreign interests and big business, and has failed to propose a way to improve our schools or provide healthcare to those who need.
Needless to say, Barack is on the opposite side of all these issues. I think the choice for Christians is clear, and if you have concerns about Barack, I hope you will email me with an open mind.
By the way, in case you’ve been ingesting some of the smears about Barack, I recommend the site: http://www.fightthesmears.com
Angelica Kristen Jongco
June 13th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Here’s some Press Coverage on the statement:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20080613-142528/Mabuhay-says-Obama-to-Filipinos-on-Independence-Day
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100960/Obama-greets-Pinoys-on-Independence-day-recognizes-Filvets-contributions
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=121679
Will archive on the Media & Press page.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I personally am glad Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is meeting with George W. Bush later this month. It reestablishes in the public mind the very close links between those two leaders.
By close links, I do not mean their “anti-terrorist” alliance, which has always been shaky and become even shakier with Arroyo veering closer to China. I do not mean by it that Arroyo and Bush have made “special relations” even more special by drawing the two countries closer. I mean by it the uncanny similarities between those two, enough to make one believe, despite the fact that one is ruler of the world and the other ruler only of Lilliput, that they are psychic twins.
Both are the progenies of presidents who became presidents themselves for a couple of terms. Bush by tinkering with the Florida votes the first time—that was how he beat Al Gore—and by winning reasonably cleanly against John Kerry the second time. Arroyo by being swept to power the first time and by cheating the hell out of FPJ the second time.
Both are small and petty and have a huge chip on their shoulders, resentful of the fact that before they came to power they had been belittled for being, well, small and petty. Both have an insatiable appetite for power, Bush seeking it for the Neo-Cons and their vision of the United States straddling the world like a colossus, as Cassius said of Caesar, and Arroyo seeking it for herself. (One is tempted to add “and her husband,” but that presumes a capacity to see beyond self, a trait she has little shown.)
Both are detested by their constituents. A CNN/Opinion Research poll last month showed that 71 percent of Americans disapproved of Bush, the first time any American president broke the 70 percent barrier. He has single-handedly provided David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart and other talk show hosts no end of material, which was probably what got them through the writers’ strike. Arroyo hasn’t just broken every barrier in disapproval rating, she has zoomed past them. She is probably more unpopular now than Marcos was then: Marcos at least had the undying loyalty of the Ilocanos (and Imelda the Warays), Arroyo has only the dying loyalty of the Cabalens and the Cebuanos. Or their loyalty does not come from the heart, it comes from the pockets.
Most importantly, both like to lie to their people. If it hadn’t been patent before, Bush’s former press secretary has made it patent now: Bush lied about the Iraq War. He sent American youths to their deaths in desert sands for reasons that had nothing to do with democracy or freedom. The subtitle of Scott McClellan’s book sums it up: “Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.” He might as well have been writing about Malacañang. In Arroyo’s case, well, what has she not lied about? The only truth she has ever told is that if she ran in 2004, she would bring unending divisiveness upon this country.
But I am glad Arroyo is meeting with Bush later this month because of an even more compelling or sublime reason. That is the fact that Barack Obama, who has just won the Democratic primaries and will be the next president of America barring an assassination, provides a tremendous contrast—not least for Filipinos to see—between him and them. Right vs. Wrong, Virtue vs. Vice, Hope vs. Despair, Good vs. Evil, Life vs. Death.
Obama’s core message is Change, the one thing that Americans want, as shown by the surveys. That is the opposite of the core message of Bush and Arroyo, which is More of the Same. Obama’s core thrust is transparency, or telling the truth about the Iraq Invasion and everything else about life to the American people. That is the opposite of the core thrust of Bush and Arroyo, which is to lie unto death.
Indeed, the very core of Obama’s existence is hope, the unlikely hero of the story winning in the end, the Hobbit undoing the Evil Eye, the neophyte senator stealing the thunder from everybody else and going on to become the first black president of America. That is the opposite of the very core of Bush’s and Arroyo’s existence, Bush being one US president who, like Sen. Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, roistered a reign of tyranny and paranoia, and Arroyo being one Filipino president who, like Ferdinand Marcos, stole everything that wasn’t nailed to the floor, including the vote and human life. They will, or should, go on, to disappear in the bowels of obscurity or the annals (or anus) of infamy as they richly deserve.
This is one time I won’t really mind that we yield to the clutches of “colonial mentality” and imitate, or make “gaya-gaya,” as the “coñotics” say, the United States today. We’ve already pretty much forgotten EDSA People Power, we could do with some new infusions of inspiration, and this is one huge shot of adrenaline in dying veins. By all means let’s talk of change and truth and hope too. Even better, let’s ape America shamelessly and produce an Obama too.
If we are to take any consolation from the hell on earth that Bush and Arroyo have wrought, it is only in that it has made us, or should make us, hanker for heaven. That is the only good they have done, to be so evil they’ve left us no choice but to crave good. Without the despair Bush has provoked, America would not have glimpsed the hope Obama invokes. I don’t know that we will ever produce an Obama—though I have no doubt we do not lack for people like him, who are to be found however outside the ranks of today’s politicians. But I have little doubt that the hell Arroyo’s long and despotic rule has brought us will have us hankering for heaven too. When that rule is over-and it won’t be so unless we move to make it so—we will demand from ourselves never to be plunged to that nightmare again.
When Arroyo and Bush meet later this month, their constituents themselves will have only one agenda: Change.
June 14th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I hope President Obama can change the image of America, from being a war freak, tyrant, rapist, etc.
I want to see the old America as Dr. Jose Rizal said. “America is the symbol of freedom and democracy.”
June 30th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Hey Conrad,
With regards to US-Philippine relations, it doesn’t look like Obama will be providing much change. I’m sure you’ve seen his statement on Arroyo’s visit. Check out http://folkpolitics.wordpress.com for other reactions to this statment… looks like people will reach the realization that despite all of Obama’s rhetoric, they will end voting for him cuz he represents the lesser of 2 evils.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Looking at Obama’s statements he is clueless as to the problems the Philippines is facing. It’s so ironic that when I listen to Obama’s talk of Hope and Change, I am reminded of the corrupt Filipino politicians who keep on prattling the same line to get relected.
I know a lot of naturalized Filipino citizens who will not vote for Obama because they are seeing the same cold blank empty Filipino politician in him. Most Filipinos I know will either write-in Hillary or vote for John McCain.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:07 am
My son is in the military and i don’t want Obama to be his commander-in-chief. I also don’t want to pay for the health insurance of lazy people that don’t want to work. more welfare, naaah! higher taxes, naaah!
October 9th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Ok, a few things here. Obama wants to pull out of Iraq in a couple of years and focus on Afghanistan. From there, I don’t think he’ll involve us in unnecessary wars.
That argument about health insurance doesn’t make much sense to me. If you sent your son to public school, isn’t it true that other people paid for your son to go to school? The same reasoning applies to other projects like health insurance. Germs don’t check people for health insurance. Clearly, it’s in your self-interest to have healthy people around you.
Go to http://www.electiontaxes.com/ for more information about your tax cuts under Obama or McCain. Actually run the numbers, and then come back here with a report.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
war in iraq is not yet won but we are winning. that’s the reason why foreign fighters are shifting to afghanistan. Do you think Obama knows what to do or really will fight muslim extremist? I sent my kids to catholic schools and I work hard for it. Do you really want to pay for health insurance of people that don’t want to work? Did you read or hear Sen. Biden saying it is patriotic to pay higher tax and then change it that only rich american will.