The Philippine Online Chronicles

She is cute, popular, cheerful, gracious accommodating – almost like a Filipina, only light-brown haired, gray eyed, and freckled.

Very few has done as much for Philippine American friendship in so short a time.  Very few has so successfully erased the image of the Ugly American so effortlessly … almost just by being herself.

Mabuhay, Kristie Kenney, the most popular American Ambassador to the Philippines in recent memory.

Images of the slim and tall ambassadress make us smile and make us want to hug her closer to our bosom and press her deeper into our memory.  Now feeding street children,  now dancing in a television show, then following a La Salle vs Ateneo basketball game, later buying vegetables in a palengke in Mindanao, next reading stories to children -- and so on.

Most ambassadors frequent Malacanang receptions, high-society functions, cultural to-dos.

Ambassador Kenney  has visited much of the countryside, talked with Moro Rebels, chatted with urban poor women.

The Order of Sikatuna conferred on Kenney before she left cited her work in educating the country’s youth, protecting the environment, advancing the interest of Filipino veterans of World War II, improving the defense and security cooperation between the two countries, and fostering peace and development in Mindanao.

The citation also noted her leadership in facilitating immediate assistance to the Philippines in times of calamity.

When I learned she was leaving … my gut reaction was:  Why, why so soon?  Why, when she’s doing a great job?  The answer, or the official or the politically correct answer, is not hard to find. According to the news, the ambassador has to go back home to take care of her ailing 86-year-old mother.

So like a Pinay, huh?  And easy for us Pinoys to understand.

But the suspicious and the cynical in me, the one that tends to see beyond what meets the eye – is looking for other answers.

I thought there might be undue haste in her departure.

Does someone more “in the know” know something we do not know or can only vaguely suspect? Some  sinister scenarios in this  land that Kenney has seemed to learn to love?  Some grim, dark spectre of mayhem in May?   Does it have something to do with politics? Or more precisely .. the elections?

At his recent White House meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA), US President Barack Obama expounded on how important it is to have elections in the Philippines.

“You are Asia’s oldest democracy,” he emphasized.  “It’s important that your election process proceeds in a way that will solidify the democratic process and be a model of transparency and democracy in the region”

In reply, President Arroyo assured US President Obama:  “Yes, we have elections in 2010. I will leave office on June 30. But I will be working until the last minute on issues that matter.”

Is it possible someone important is not taking GMA’s word for it?

Does this important someone anticipate scenarios that would require someone less friendly, less less gracious and accommodating, indeed, someone more macho and strong and unyielding making decisions and pronouncements at the Embassy by the Bay.

Which reminds me how an American Senator advised a beleaguered Philippine President, many, many years ago, to “cut and cut cleanly.”

Photos by Michael Ray Baniquet. Some Rights Reserved.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites