Test for Arroyo as Philippine trucker threatened with death in Iraq

Articles: Test for Arroyo as Philippine trucker threatened with death in Iraq

Posted by admin on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 12:12 AM

The Philippines was anxiously awaiting news of the fate of a kidnapped Philippine truck driver facing execution in Iraq, in what has become the first major test for the country's new government.
Officials were hoping the kidnappers would honor their reported pledge to stay the beheading of Angelo de la Cruz by two days. The first deadline expired early Sunday, when a member of President Gloria Arroyo's cabinet prematurely announced what she said was an agreement to free the hostage. The report later proved false. Analyst Jose Abueva said the kidnapping was a major crisis for Arroyo, who is barely two weeks into her six-year term after winning the bitterly disputed May 10 presidential election. "It is always very difficult to be in that position where you have to reconcile so many interests," Abueva, the president of Manila's Kalayaan College, told AFP. The government is under pressure to give in to demands by the kidnappers who took hostages to force countries who supported the US-led invasion to pull their troops out of Iraq. A South Korean hostage was beheaded last month while several Japanese hostages were also kidnapped but eventually freed as both countries went ahead with planned troop deployments to Iraq. So far, Arroyo has rejected calls to advance the planned August 20 pullout of 51 Filipino soldiers and policemen. The unit is winding up its tour of duty after the handover of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government two weeks ago. "In international hostage crisis management, the government must remain firm. No self-respecting government will allow itself to decide under duress," said legislator Roilo Golez, the president's former national security adviser. "The less hysterical we are, the less speculation, the less extraneous information, the better," he told ABS-CBN television. Abueva said a few Filipinos believe that "it was wrong in the first place to have sided with the US in its unilateral invasion of Iraq and who feel this is the best time for us to end the collaboration with the United States and send back our forces." De la Cruz was abducted last week by a group calling itself the Khaled Ibn al-Walid Brigade, linked to the militant Islamic Army in Iraq. The 46 year-old father of eight has become a cause celebre for the more than one million Filipino workers in the Middle East. He has also united this deeply divided country, with both minority Muslims and majority Roman Catholics praying for his freedom. "This is a very difficult situation" for the president, Carlos Medina of the Ateneo de Manila University law school said over ABS-CBN. He said Arroyo was bound by her "support to the coalition", but also needed to "send the proper signals" to the seven million Filipinos who work abroad and kept the struggling Southeast Asian economy afloat. Medina said Arroyo would also have been aware of the importance of not giving in to terrorist blackmail because "this will set a precedent" of more kidnappings in the future.

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