Philippine opposition stalwarts… have resorted to gulling the gullible in the United States as an insidious tact to overthrow our duly elected president.

During the dictatorship years one act of defiance to oppose the rule of Ferdinand Marcos was to resort to photocopied alternative print media comprised of smuggled-in foreign reports and opinion pieces critical of Marcos.

Most of the sources were from the United States and many of the American politicians sympathetic to the plight of the Filipinos then were from the Democratic Party. That was understandable. The Democrats then were an entirely different sort from today’s rabid litter, the latter salivating with bloodlust, hellbent and blindly violating their own Constitution.

That difference would explain their present-day animosity even towards a vibrant democracy thousands of miles across the Pacific. Note where the current cabal’s impetus is an offshoot of the global populism and the need for more connected leaders that were factors in establishing Rodrigo Duterte as Philippine president.

The Philippine dictatorship at the time perpetuated alongside mostly Republican-led American presidencies friendlier to Marcos than the Democrat-led administrations most of which spanned merely one term.

There were two two-term Republican presidents whose administrations extended to a total of 16 years to Marcos’ nearly 20. The resultant relationship was not only based on coincident number of years but on aid and influence.

There was the very popular and iconic Ronald Reagan who, even as the governor of California, had a special relationship with the Marcoses. George H.W. Bush Sr., who as a navy pilot in the Second World War fought in operations staged from the Philippines, in one visit to Malacañang when he was still vice president had the audacity to say they were proud of Marcos’ adherence to “democratic principles.” His faux pas confirmed the deep gullibility and ignorance of the real situation in the Philippines.

Never mind the ludicrous irony that Bush Sr.’s political strength as president was foreign policy. Foreign policy, mostly determined singularly by the president under our democracy as well as in the American model, is often influenced by presidential whisperers and lobby groups. Among Democrats today, especially under the previous Obama administration where their billion-dollar political action committee coffers were fattened by special interest groups and wealthy donors, there is no shortage of influence peddlers and lobbyists.

The recent statement and draft resolution by Democratic lawmakers seeking to intervene and drastically derail the course of Philippine justice in connection with the drug trafficking charges being prosecuted against one sitting senator and

self-confessed adulterer are the result of such moneyed lobbying and influence peddling.

The blueprint is clear. Philippine opposition stalwarts some of whom face sedition and criminal cases in the country have resorted to gulling the gullible in the United States as an insidious tact to overthrow our duly elected president. Listen to what two Filipinos and two other mongrelized have been spreading overseas.

The Democrats do not yet realize their strings are being pulled and that these criminally accused have been lying to them especially on the unvalidated number of collateral casualties from the anti-illegal drug offensives.

Why are these foreign politicians so easily fooled that they would climb a hill of garbage and from the top proclaim their self-righteousness on the basis of misinformation?

National Book Award winner James Fallows in his book on the development of Asian economies entitled “Looking at the Sun” discusses two western characteristics that render them vulnerable to lies where these reflect on their values.

One, Americans tend to view the world as a vast extension of their own culture. Two, they assume everyone wants to become an American. Hence, they control all behavioral benchmarks and judge others accordingly.

Leonor Robredo and a band of others have taken advantage of such western weaknesses. Unfortunately they risk tanking not only Philippine judicial integrity but our sovereignty as well.