A Word On Wolfie's "All Wet" Tribute To Cory Aquino

(And I also posted here.)

PNAC member and former head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz tells us the following on the pages of the Murdoch Street Journal here today…

Corazon Aquino, who died of cancer Saturday at the age of 76, will be remembered as the surprisingly tough “housewife” who forced a dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, to leave office after his attempt to steal an election. But she also deserves to be remembered as the leader of the first “People Power” revolution. Her success strengthened U.S. confidence in what was then a new policy of promoting peaceful democratic change, a policy that remains relevant today.

It’s particularly grotesque for someone like Wolfowitz to speak of peace, given that, as Wikipedia noted above, he called for attacking Iraq after 9/11 with the following feeble justification…

...even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism.[4][18]

And as quoted in Paul Reynolds' BBC News report, David Rothkopf stated:

Their [The Project for the New American Century's] signal enterprise was the invasion of Iraq and their failure to produce results is clear. Precisely the opposite has happened. The US use of force has been seen as doing wrong and as inflaming a region that has been less than susceptible to democracy. Their plan has fallen on hard times. There were flaws in the conception and horrendously bad execution. The neo-cons have been undone by their own ideas and the incompetence of the Bush administration.[24]

Paul Wolfowitz talking about peace has about as much credibility as Kim Jong-Il discussing diplomacy. However, I know this really isn’t news.

What I would like to also point out from Wolfowitz’s column today is the following…

President Aquino’s record in office was less distinguished than her record as leader of the opposition. The country today is still a long way from the success that could be expected of a population that is so energetic, hard working and generally well educated.

Maybe part of the reason why the Philippines is a “long way” from success is because of the World Bank, which Wolfowitz headed from March 2005 until June 2007, when he had to resign under a cloud of scandal over favors doled out to Shaha Riza, his Arab girlfriend.

As noted here, the World Bank funded the Magdalena Water Project in the Philippines; we also learn the following…

The municipality of Magdalena in the province of Laguna was among the first to avail of the World Bank loan under the (Local Government Unit Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project). In 1998, the World Bank, through the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), granted the municipality of Magdalena a P24.22 million loan. When the project was completed in June 2001 the Department of Health (DOH), the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), conducted several water tests. All tests concluded the water from Magdalena’s newly constructed water system is unsafe for drinking.

Despite the proof provided by these tests, the local mayor announced on March 2, 2002 that the water from Magdalena water system was 100 percent potable. The announcement was made without a certificate of water potability. In addition, in the September 2002, the World Bank issued the newsletter In Touch, claiming that “clean, safe water” is now available 24 hours a day for folks in Magdalena.

“But you can’t blame Wolfowitz for that,” I hear some cry out there, since the project predated his World Bank presidency.

OK, but according to this, there was still a problem in 2006, to the point where “(A) municipal-wide coalition now leads the campaign against the World Bank-funded water project. Among their demands are safe, drinking water and an alternative water system directly controlled by the communities.”

(I haven’t been able to find any information more current on this than 2006, by the way; there is a project with a similar name underway in Colombia, but I know of no other recent news about the Philippine project.)

Also, as noted here (from June)…

“International financial institutions like the World Bank can help highly-indebted countries like the Philippines by starting to act like a development institution rather than a commercial bank and by canceling loans it is claiming from us,” continued (Freedom from Debt Coalition) secretary-general Milo) Tanchuling.

The FDC said if the (World Bank) would indeed start the process of debt cancellation, it can also start with auditing its own loan-financed projects. The group said one loan that should be audited is the loan for the Second Social Expenditure Management Program (SEMP2) and the Small Coconut Farms Development Project (SCFDP).

The SEMP2 was funded by a $100-million World Bank loan, around $40 million of which was earmarked for the procurement of 17.5 million Social Studies textbooks and teachers’ manuals for public elementary and high schools.

“The project allegedly underwent a rigged bidding process involving a monopoly and was reported to have produced at least 600,000 defective textbooks,” said the FDC.

…

The FDC said the Philippines is scheduled to pay a total of $11.46 million or P540 million, both for interest and principal, for the SCFDP loan this year. The loan will be paid until September 15, 2010.

…

With the country’s debt totaling P4.229 trillion as of March this year, and with the deficit soaring 556.2 percent year-on-year from January to May, the economy will be in a more precarious situation should government increase its deficit further, according to the group.

Perhaps instead of showering accolades on its recently deceased former leader, maybe Wolfie could really do the country a favor instead and petition the organization he used to run for the sake of relieving the Philippine financial burden.

If it helps, maybe he should consider the Judeo-Christian concept of penance, and chalk it up to an act of atonement for his Iraq warmongering (though by no means could this gesture settle Wolfie's score by itself).