Strategic Retreat

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo hasn't suffered much from her recent decision to withdraw 51 troops from Iraq to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz, a Philippine truck driver kidnapped by insurgents in Fallujah. Despite a rebuke last week by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer—"If we start caving into terrorists," Downer boomed, "our foreign policy, our international relationships will be determined by terrorists"—Arroyo has been flaunting her decision to grant the kidnappers' demands and bring home the soldiers as a badge of honor. She crowed about De la Cruz's homecoming in her annual State of the Nation address, saying that Philippine lives are "held more dearly than international acclaim."

Breaking ranks with her international allies certainly hasn't hurt her status at home, where Arroyo is enjoying an unexpected boost in popularity following a narrow win in May's presidential election. To consolidate support, Arroyo has scheduled weekly town-hall meetings for the next four weeks, during which she promises to rub elbows with the common folk, many of whom have viewed her as élitist. Says Ellen Tordesillas, a political analyst and newspaper columnist: "By saving Angelo de la Cruz's neck, President Arroyo saved her own neck."

But it is still not clear if her relationship with Washington is intact. There have been no changes in the estimated $724 million package of military-and-economic aid Washington has promised cash-strapped Manila this year, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the two countries "remain friends." But how the pullout "might affect our policies in the future remains to be seen," he added. Asiri Abubakar, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines, called Arroyo's decision a big gamble: "The administration may be celebrating now, but maybe not in the long run." Arroyo may have traded foreign support for cheers at home.