POLITICS: MANILA – Soros, OSI lobby group may be involved in Rody critics’ attacks

Former President Benigno Aquino could well be colluding and conspiring with international lobby groups infamous for pressuring and bankrolling governments around the world to subscribe to liberal-leftist policies.

This is what presidential spokesman Harry Roque hinted at yesterday saying that Aquino’s administration may well be in cahoots with major foreign lobbyists, particularly the Open Society Institute (OSI).

If international bodies and so-called human rights activists seem to give President Duterte’s political opponents a lot of morale boosting moves, his immediate predecessor, the former president and his yellow political allies could very well have a stake in this, the Palace official implied.

OSI’s founder and chairman George Soros is known for promoting policies that go against traditional values such as abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriages.

His extensive funding of political causes allegedly has made him a “bugaboo of European nationalists.”
A so-called leftist philanthropist, Soros is known for backing Ukrainian separatists, anti-Israel Palestinian movements and alleged initiatives against US President Donald Trump.

In 2002, a French court found Soros guilty for “insider trading” by buying stakes in four formerly state-owned companies, including France’s largest bank.

Roque believes that the OSI is influential in the progress of the charges filed against Mr. Duterte by local opposition lackeys before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the body of which the Philippines is officially pulling out.

The lobby group, Mr. Duterte’s spokesman noted, may have also stirred United Nations (UN) rapporteurs to be aggressive against the 72-year-old Philippine leader who is often described by the western media as a “strongman.”

Asked if local political groups could be working hand in hand with the OSI, Roque reiterated that Aquino’s government has once bowed to it.

“Local political parties are just riding on these smear campaigns against President Duterte. But we know for a fact that President Aquino has enrolled the government to OSI’s Open Government Initiative,” Roque told reporters in media briefing.

The Philippines, under the Aquino administration, was among the founding members of the Soros-funded Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2011.

With the front commitment of having more transparent governments, the OGP was co-founded in New York City with former US President Barack Obama whose presidential bids were said to also have been openly supported by Soros.

Roque, an active human rights lawyer prior to becoming Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, said he is fully aware on how such lobbyists operate.

“International Lobby Groups always ally themselves with opposition groups… It’s the same lobby groups who have successfully lobbied the Office of Prosecutor also to proceed at least with preliminary examination,” Roque said.

“I acknowledge I’ve even worked with that group. But it’s the OSI group. They’re the ones funding human rights groups and they have a very strong lobby in the UN Human Rights bodies including the ICC… And in fact I had gone many times to the ICC assembly of state parties as part of the civil society delegation,” he added. /  Written by  Ted Tuvera /  Friday, 16 March 2018/ / All photographs, news, editorials, opinions, information, data, others have been taken from the Internet ..aseanews.net | [email protected] / For comments, Email to : Aseanews.Net | [email protected] | Contributor:-