receiving foreign aids with moral-ethical principles

the principle i'm proposing is very simple: accept the peace money, reject the war money.

there’s much excitement right now about u.s. ambassador francis ricciardone’s promise of american aid to the philippines, specifically funds intended for mindanao.

before we accept this money, if indeed it will come at all, the philippine government must have strong moral-ethical backbone enough to choose the kinds of money it receives from outside sources. monies earmarked for military expenditures must be rejected. monies for peaceful use, such as relief and development, must be accepted with gratitude.

think with me for a moment as we look into two cases of financial assistance by foreign governments.

1. the financial assistance from the united states—to help equip our military—is an example of war money. these are tax-dollars from ordinary working women and men in the united states. the bush administration offers these monies to those nations—euphemized as the “coalition of the willing”—who will support bush’s war against iraq. but these monies will only be handed out with so much strings attached to them, one of which is that, the receiving government should buy guns, bullets, and other war machineries from american military-industrial suppliers. these giant corporate suppliers rake in billions of dollars in profits from around the world, and part of those profits are donated back to the republicans—that is, george w. bush’s party.

meanwhile, our local military generals take their share from these ill-produced, ill-distributed, and ill-spent monies that fuel the engines of corruption in our country in general, and in mindanao in particular.

look at this recent report in the philippine daily inquirer:

house majority leader prospero nograles (lakas, davao city) said a closer scrutiny into the alleged ill-gotten wealth of certain military officers may hold the key to ending the war in mindanao. recent reports had it some military officers, most of them generals, had become multimillionaires because of their involvement in anomalies... nograles said the same military officers may be responsible for sabotaging the present peace efforts with muslim insurgents because "war is making them filthy rich."

representative benasing macarambon (npc, lanao del sur), himself a former moro national liberation front rebel, said the war in mindanao was being used to justify the appropriation of more funds for logistics and the acquisition of more firearms and ammunition, with the money then "diverted to the pockets of some military generals."

our government must have strong ethical and moral backbone to let go of these war monies. war monies naturally will finance more wars, which will produce more war monies, which will finance more wars, ad infinitum…

nograles’ suggestion must be implemented—that is, to scrutinize the ill-gotten wealth of those generals with unexplained millions in their bank accounts! as soon as the military courts have found them guilty, confiscate their ill-gotten wealth and fire them.

would president gloria macapagal-arroyo have enough backbone to investigate her powerful generals, especially those assigned in mindanao?

2. the financial assistance from canada is an example of peace money. these monies are from tax-dollars of ordinary canadian women and men. the canadian international development agency (cida) is appropriating $16.95 million dollars for mindanao. canada grants these monies to newly industrializing countries like the philippines. there are also strings attached to these funds. countries receiving them should be willing to have trade relations with canada.

(it’s true, poor countries who are trading with giants like canada are like mice dancing with the elephants; they’re invited to the party but they may be stepped on in the midst of the fun. but some wise mice are learning to step on and surf on the hoofs of the elephant during the dance. global trade may not be fair, but it’s better than being dependent on military financial slavery. anyway, global trade and globalization are other topics of discussion i’ll write on later.)

so, let’s receive peace money and use them to compete in the global economic arena.

some of you might say, “you’re just an idealist, dante! our country cannot afford to reject millions of dollars for the sake of moral-ethical reasons.”

well, maybe. but listen to this story…

under the leadership of the former prime minister jean chretien, canada decided not to participate in the u.s. war against iraq because of its policy to exhaust all peaceful means before considering the possibility of going into war. it was a political decision based on ethics and morality. jean chretien gave the finger to george w. bush—in a figurative sense, of course—when chretien ignored bush’s call to attack iraq.

canada, along with germany, france and other respectable nations, chose to lose billions of dollars’ worth of potential contracts on the anticipated reconstruction of iraq after the war. but the war did not stop. no reconstruction project was able to survive in the midst of the present iraqi guerilla resistance against the u.s. occupation. those who were awarded contracts lost money. those who were not given contracts were saved from big financial and investment disasters.

lesson to be learned? moral-ethical based political decisions are economically viable in the 21st century global reality!

oh, going back to ambassador ricciardone’s offer of u.s. aid…

if that’s war money, reject it. but if that’s really peace money for the relief and development of the poor people in mindanao, accept it with gratitude…

…even if they are from the bush administration.

(dante's note: a copy of this blog has been sent, in a formal correspondence format, to the office of the president of the philippines.)