Diplomatic bikini

What’s worse than being described by former US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney—in a confidential cable to Washington that was among the documents recently disclosed by the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks—as “diffident and unassertive”? It’s throwing a hissy fit at the unflattering appraisal, lobbing defensive broadsides at Kenney from the halls of Malacañang itself and all but dignifying a memo that, by reason of its unauthorized provenance, has remained officially, well, unofficial.

Presidential Spokesperson Ricky Carandang would have done better had he responded to Kenney’s purported assertions with something wittier, instead of launching a grim counterattack that only said volumes about this administration’s churlish tendencies. “We normally don’t comment on purportedly leaked cables,” he said, “but it’s quite consistent with talk that went on in the diplomatic community at the time that Ambassador Kenney had been coopted by the Arroyo regime.”

First off, Carandang has no business acting as ventriloquist for the diplomatic community by assigning hard-to-prove allegations of “talk” to it. Second, it might be true that Kenney had become an ubiquitous, even solicitous presence by the side of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But how radically different, really, were Kenney’s  estimation of candidate Noynoy Aquino from those of other local political pundits who had pontificated along the same lines, as the senator found himself riding an unexpected groundswell of public adulation and clamor for leadership following his mother’s death?

“Aquino may be perceived as having had a lackluster political career,” wrote Kenney, “but he also appears to have a relatively clean record with no baggage of scandals.” Take away Kenney’s purported imprint from that assessment, scrub off the US government’s diplomatic seal from the cable, and what have you got? A verdict that any two-bit media commentator in this country had arrived at by the time the prospects of an Aquino candidacy seemed just about ready to become a serious threat to the multimillion-peso charm offensive of the presidential frontrunner at the time, Sen. Manuel Villar.

In fact, sifting through the WikiLeaks revelations, one is struck not so much by the contents of the reports, as by their second-string quality. Consider just a few examples: US Embassy charge d’affaires Joseph Mussomeli, in a 2005 memo about the Philippine National Police: “The PNP management is a mess… a cancer upon the body politic.” On the Ampatuans and the political order that had spawned them: “There are many areas in the Philippines… where armed groups have proliferated and the national authorities have a very limited capability to impose order.”  US Embassy economic counselor Robert Ludan, on First Gentleman Mike Arroyo: “One of the worst offenders… President Arroyo… is aware of her husband’s misdeeds, but she is unwilling to do anything to curb his activities because he was instrumental in marshaling campaign donations and is now keeping those supporters in line to help her maintain her grip on power.” And, of course, the now-infamous Kenney dig at former President Cory Aquino’s “weak leadership style… [which] leaves behind an incomplete transition to democratic governance.”

Is there anything novel, original or truly insightful in those statements? The same rote, familiar narratives clog the Philippine airwaves every day. Kenney and her staff need not have bothered with “Confidential” protocols for their reports. The White House could have simply gone online for direct access to the unfettered, freewheeling ejaculations of the country’s loquacious commentators, and saved itself millions of dollars in diplomatic intelligence-gathering costs.

Malacañang should save the outrage for more substantive things. Another WikiLeaks cable, for instance, said the US government had known of “Hello, Garci” after the Arroyo government itself asked the US Embassy if it was the source of the tape. The embassy denied it, and merely “underscored our strong support for Philippine democracy and stability, as well as our opposition to any extra-constitutional activities,” wrote Mussomeli. Now, could there be any greater extra-constitutional activity than a brazen—and documented—power grab through election fraud? Yet Kenney et al. chose to remain silent.

You could say the WikiLeaks trove is the diplomatic equivalent of a bikini: What it reveals is interesting, but what it hides is essential.