FORMER president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could help the Philippines communicate more easily with the United States if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election there in November, a political analyst said Sunday.
“There is someone who can help bridge the communication [gap],” said Ramon Casiple,
executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform in the Philippines.
“We can get something good out of that. The message will be clear on both sides.”
Casiple made the statement even as Malacañang reiterated that the Philippines would not be severing its ties with the United States, and that President Rodrigo Duterte only meant separation in terms of policies.
“The President’s pronouncement is clear”•that we are separating from the US in terms of the so-called colonial mentality when it comes to foreign policies, military policies, economic policies because we are anchored on the policies of the Americans,” Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar told state-run dzRB radio.
“This does not mean severing ties. That’s not what the President meant. What he meant was that we are separating in terms of policies.”
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Philippines’ trade and investment relations with the United States would continue but it would seek economic independence from the world superpower.
Casiple said Arroyo’s personal and professional relationship with Clinton’s husband, former US President Bill Clinton, could help much to improve the Philippines’ relations with the US.
He said both former presidents were classmates at the Georgetown University in the 1960s.
“[Arroyo’s relations with the Clintons] could help [and] it is good. The key to a relationship is anchored on confidence,” Casiple said.
“There is trust and confidence among the policy-makers from both sides. It is important [in a relationship] that both of you came from the same school, that you know each other. That there is trust,” Casiple said.
Duterte has called President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch.
He has also announced the Philippines’ separation from the United States during his four-day visit to China.
But he later clarified that he was not breaking ties with the US but pursuing a more independent foreign policy.