Angelo de la Cruz�s release is the people�s victory
Filipino driver Angelo de la Cruz was released by his Iraqi captors on July 20, a day after the Philippines� mercenary troops were withdrawn from Iraq.
De la Cruz was abducted in Baghdad on July 7 by members of the Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps, which is part of the Islamic Army fighting the US occupation of Iraq. His captors threatened to behead de la Cruz if the 51-man Philippine contingent supporting the US� war of aggression and occupation of Iraq did not leave by July 20. The date set by the Iraqi guerrillas was a month earlier than that set by the Arroyo regime.
At first, Arroyo declared her refusal to withdraw the troops earlier than her set deadline. She preferred to sacrifice de la Cruz�s life in support of the US� �anti-terrorist war� and maintain an excellent, obsequious relationship with her imperialist master.
The Arroyo regime is now using de la Cruz�s release to ingratiate itself before the people and salvage its plummeting popularity. The regime shamelessly plans to parade de la Cruz during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) to brag and make it appear that it was Arroyo who saved his life.
This is another one of Arroyo�s deceptions. In the first place, it was her regime�s all-out support for US imperialism�s invasion and occupation of Iraq that endangered de la Cruz�s life and that of millions of other Filipino workers in the Middle East. But now Arroyo wants to abrogate the honor of saving de la Cruz�s life.
The Arroyo regime has stood by and repeated the discredited lies used by the Bush regime in the US invasion of Iraq. However, Bush�s pretexts for forcibly removing the Saddam Hussein regime from power�harboring weapons of mass destruction and maintaining links with al-Qaeda�have proven to be huge prevarications. The US war and occupation of Iraq and by extension, the Arroyo regime�s fierce support for it, have both been proven to be devoid of any just or legal basis. This leaves only one thing that ought to be done, and that is to repatriate the Philippine mercenary troops from Iraq.
Widespread protests throughout the country greeted Arroyo�s intransigence. In the two weeks of de la Cruz�s detention, protest actions nationwide brought to the fore the Filipino people�s fervent opposition to the Arroyo government�s total support for US imperialism�s unjust aggression in, and occupation of, Iraq.
The regime sought to prevent the street demonstrations demanding the return of the mercenary Filipino forces in Iraq by ordering the police to brutally and arbitrarily disperse them. The regime also tried to gag the mass media and others expressing opposition to the regime.
The government likewise tried other means, including negotiating and offering a $6 million bribe to the Iraqi guerrillas to secure de la Cruz�s release without having to send home the Filipino soldiers in Iraq. But the guerrillas rebuffed them.
Calls for de la Cruz�s immediate release reverberated throughout the country and people�s protests against the all-out support for the US imperialist occupation of Iraq and the dispatching of Filipino troops to that country became widespread.
In the face of all this, the Arroyo regime had no choice but to withdraw its mercenary troops, not so much to save de la Cruz�s life but to salvage its own.
On July 12, Arroyo declared that the Philippine troops would be sent home earlier. By the 19th of July, the entire Philippine contingent had been sent back from Iraq.
It was not really Arroyo who secured de la Cruz�s release but the Filipino people�s strong, militant and broad struggle to effect the repatriation of all Filipino troops from Iraq and save not only de la Cruz but all other Filipino workers in Iraq and the Middle East who had been put in harm�s way.
De la Cruz�s release is a victory of none other than the Filipino people against the US� pointless �anti-terrorist war� in Iraq which receives the puppet Arroyo regime�s complete support. It is a victory that will be celebrated not only by the Filipino people but by the Iraqi people and all peoples opposed to the US� trampling on the sovereignty and independence of other countries around the globe.
The withdrawal of Filipino troops from Iraq has disappointed the US, especially since the Philippines is but the latest in a growing list of former supporters of the US war that have likewise recalled their troops. Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Norway, Moldova and Singapore have earlier pulled out their troops. Thailand and New Zealand have set their troop withdrawals in September. The Netherlands and Poland have also announced their planned withdrawals.
US government spokespersons claim that withdrawing troops is tantamount to surrendering to the terrorists and signals them to resort to the same actions over and over. This statement obscures the fact that it is the avarice and aggression of the world�s number one terrorist�US imperialism�that is the alpha and omega of all the current turmoil in Iraq, the entire Middle East and elsewhere in the world.
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