To hold or not to hold

When President Obama decided to release what is touted as the Torture Memos, he was faced with a dilemma: to hold or not to hold those who authorized the memos accountable.

There are those who argue that President Obama should, because it's an affront to the basic law of the land, the Constitution. On the other hand, there are those who argue that President Obama should not, because it just distracts the administration from dealing with more pressing matters, chief of which the battered economy.

On the January 11th edition of ABC’s “This Week, when asked whether he will "...appoint a special prosecutor...to independently investigate the greatest crimes of the Bush administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping," the then President-elect Obama didn't give a black or white answer.

"We’re still evaluating how we’re going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth," he said. "And obviously we’re going to be looking at past practices and I don’t believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering [up]."

But Paul Krugman, the Nobel Laureate slash economist slash blogger, begged to differ.

"I’m sorry," Krugman wrote, "but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power."

Why I'm bringing this up?

Because now that we are about to choose, among others, our next president (sana walang umaswang sa election), one question that we might find ourselves asking is, "Will the next president hold the past administration accountable for its many abuses?"

It's too early to say if someone will, but based on the presidentiables' earlier remarks, it seems that nobody won't.

Obama grateful to GMA. For what?

US President Barack Obama, the ABS-CBN News Online reports, is grateful to GMA because "of the strong voice that the Philippines has provided in dealing with issues in Asia, ranging from the human rights violations that have too long existed in Burma, to the problems that we're seeing with respect to nuclear proliferation in North Korea."

Nice. But what about the killing of journalists, which have taken place under her administration? What about the extrajudicial killings in Davao City where her former adviser on peace and order, Rodrigo Duterte, is mayor?

And what about the human rights violations that, according to the Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima, "have escalated since she [GMA] took office"?

'On the wrong side of history'

Amando Doronila used to preach in his columns  that there is a frosty relationship between RP and USA. And that "It will take a blast of diplomatic climate warming to defrost the deep freeze between Manila and Washington."

I also used to subscribe to his sermons. But that was before Obama delivered his speech. I do believe now, after hearing Obama's inaugural address, that the relationship between the USA and the Philippines remains unchanged. It is warm as usual. In fact, so warm is the relationship that President Barack Obama, the first black president in the White House, expressed his concern over GMA's staying on "the wrong side of story." (Up to now it remains a mystery to everyone when she'll cease to be our President.)

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent," Obama said in his inaugural address, "know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

That's what friends are for, offering pieces of advice to each other and extending help to a derailed friend. Obama is really our friend. He even offered redemption for those who are "willing to unclench" their "fist."

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But this one's for "Bitoy's Funniest Videos."

"Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita gave this piece of unsolicited advice to the first black US president when asked if there’s anything Mrs. Arroyo could learn from Obama," Philippine Star reports.

“If there’s anything to learn, it would be President Obama learning from President Arroyo,” the paper quoted Ermita as saying.

"She is the model… probably in the face of adversity," Ermita added, "the new president can learn from other leaders, like the Philippine president, on how to face up to problems and challenges especially when there are constant attacks from the opposition and detractors."

But can he?

"Yes, Obama can learn from GMA," quipped Prof. Winnie Monsod in an interview with News on Q's Ivan Mayrina and Rhea Santos . "He can learn from GMA on how not to do things."

How to rectify Bush's errors?

TIME's columnist Joe Klein wrote that ironic as it may seem,

...if Obama really wants to make a clean break from his predecessor, he should start by retaining George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense [Robert Gates].

A press release from The Office of the President-Elect said:

President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden officially announced key members of their national security team today: nominating Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, selecting Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain as Secretary of Defense...

To use Klein's terms, that's truly Obama's "team of rivals."