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Archive 8 January 2003 - June 2003 Note: These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Management, Staff and Employees of Mango's. |
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News and Info Current |
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News and Info Archive 11 | 12/04 - 12/05 | |
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News and Info Archive 10 | 1/04 - 12/04 |
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News and Info Archive 9 | 7/03 - 12/03 | |
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News and Info Archive 8 | 1/03 - 6/03 |
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News and Info Archive 7 | 8/02 - 1/03 | |
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News and Info Archive 6 | 3/02 - 7/02 |
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News and Info Archive 5 | 3/02 - 2/02 | |
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News and Info Archive 4 | 1/02 - 11/01 |
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News and Info Archive 3 | 11/01 - 7/01 | |
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News and Info Archive 2 | 3/01 - 2/00 |
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News and Info Archive 1 | - 1999 |
June 26, 2003
WASHINGTON - Two US pilots have been given awards for landing an "unflyable" MD-11 with jammed hydraulic systems and a detached left wing flap at the Philippines' Subic Bay airport.
The FedEx Express pilots -- Captain James Almlie and First Officer Mark Abbott -- were presented with the Lieutenant General Harold L. George Civilian Airmanship Award at a weekend convention in Dayton, Ohio. The award was given "for demonstrating superior airmanship and teamwork in safely recovering and landing an essentially unflyable MD-11 that had experienced severe flight control malfunctions during final approach into Subic Bay International Airport, Philippines on June 16, 2002," the Air Line Pilots Association said in a statement.
The crew was preparing to land FedEx Flight 5080 after an uneventful flight from Bangkok when they heard a loud bang and the aircraft rolled to the left, the association said in a statement. "During the flight to Manila, the pilots had to take turns applying an estimated 40 to 50 pounds (18.5 to 22.5 kilograms) of force on the control wheel required to keep the aircraft level," it said.
"Upon inspecting the aircraft after landing, the crew discovered that the left wing's inboard flap had effectively come detached due to structural failure of bolts attaching it to the plane. The violent failure had caused several hydraulic system lines to be severed and the ground spoiler system to be deployed and jammed in the "up' position."
The Order of Daedalians -- an organization for active and retired military pilots -- presented the award June 21.
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June 26, 2003
Guam, Hawaii Are Rivals For Navy Aircraft Carrier
By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer
Guam is prepared to challenge Hawaii as a homeport for any U.S. Navy aircraft carrier redeployed closer to Asian trouble spots. Joaquin Perez, district director for Guam's delegate to Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, said the island wants the carrier � and the thousands of jobs and millions in military money it brings. And he said Guam has strategic advantages over Pearl Harbor. "As far as access to areas right now that that you would consider to be trouble areas, we're a lot closer than Hawaii," Perez said yesterday.
Guam is 3,800 miles west of Hawaii, about four to five days closer to trouble spots such as the Philippines and Indonesia. The Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carriers have a top speed of about 35 mph. During a 1998 study of aircraft carrier basing, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii estimated that a carrier would have a $375 million annual economic impact and create 4,200 jobs, although officials say that figure is low.
A carrier and its air wing typically have 5,500 crew members. Families and support personnel would add thousands more individuals. A recent report in the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press indicated that a recommended shift in Navy forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific could mean the transfer of an entire carrier strike group, including about 8,000 sailors and a dozen ships.
An aircraft carrier has not been based in Hawaii since World War II. Attempts since then to bring a carrier here have failed. But a worldwide reorganization of U.S. forces, and a new focus on the Pacific, may make basing a carrier in Hawaii or Guam more likely. Maj. Gen. Bob Lee, head of the state's National Guard and Gov. Linda Lingle's adviser on military affairs, has said the Navy approached Lingle about two to three months ago about the plan.
Lee said the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station � now called Kalaeloa � could be used for a carrier's 75 planes and helicopters when it is in port. The nation's 12 carriers are evenly distributed between the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, but the Navy Times said that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark asked Atlantic Fleet commander Adm. Robert Natter � who also is the head of Fleet Forces Command � for recommendations on what forces could be sent to the Pacific.
Increased threats in Asia "demand a shift in resources to the Pacific from the Atlantic," Natter said at a May 16 Defense Forum Foundation meeting. "I think (basing a carrier at Pearl Harbor) makes a lot of sense," said Michael Pavkovic, director of the diplomacy and military studies program at Hawaii Pacific University. "Given the way we're thinking of realigning and centralizing a lot of our assets ... it makes a lot of sense to have something here rather than, let's say, San Diego."
Three Pacific Fleet carriers are based in San Diego and two in Washington state, putting all five about 2,600 miles from Hawaii. One of the Pacific carriers is based in Japan. Guam, home to 100 B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War, has been gaining in U.S. military importance with Andersen Air Force Base used for bombers sent over Iraq, and with the basing of three Los Angeles-class attack submarines there. Perez said a fourth submarine is expected to arrive in February, $90 million worth of upgrades are being made to the Navy base, and a wing of B-1 or B-52 bombers could be stationed there in several years.
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Thailand Tourism Down
June 14, 2003
PATTAYA, Thailand
It is as if the terrorist attack had already occurred. Beaches and bars are nearly empty. Tour ferries float at anchor in the distance. Even the elephants are idle, with few customers to ride them. Thailand's most famous beach resort is a study in suspended animation, devastated by a slowdown in tourism caused by fears of terrorism and SARS infection.
This week, things got even worse as Thailand found itself in the bull's-eye of the latest terrorist threats. In the country's Muslim south, the police arrested three men they said were members of a terrorist cell that was planning to attack embassies and entertainment spots. At the same time, on a visit to Washington, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared that Thailand was an ally in the worldwide campaign against terror, something he had strenuously avoided saying in the past.
Until now, the national policy has boiled down to the plea voiced today by a restaurant manager here: "Why us? We're friendly." As soon as the arrests were announced, Australia, 88of whose people died in the terrorist bombing in Bali last October, issued a warning to its citizens to stay away from beach resorts in Thailand.
Here in Pattaya, speculation has focused on a popular nightclub and a central shopping plaza as potential targets even though, with so few customers, they would seem to be poor targets. "I try to stay away from the plaza," said Munir Hasan, a salesman at one of the dozens of tailor shops that make it seem as though people come to Pattaya to get suits made as much as to go to the beach. "It's on people's minds," he said as he sat on the stoop of his empty shop.
One waitress told of the day a man with what seemed Middle Eastern looks had entered her nightclub, used the bathroom, then walked out again. "We didn't know what to do," she said. "We were all afraid to go back there and look." No figures were available to illustrate the slowdown in Pattaya, but these days it looks more like a stage set of a beach resort with a famous red-light district than the real thing.
At the empty bars, the lights flash, the music pulses and the pretty women wiggle in the doorways calling out: "Welcome! Welcome!" On the beach, rows of striped canvas lounge chairs stand nearly empty under their forests of parasols. Young men wait by stacks of black inner tubes, ready to rent them out. The surf laps quietly at the sand. Almost no one is out there splashing. It has been like this for months, people here say. "Everybody is scared," said a travel agent here. "The Thais don't visit China and the Chinese don't visit Thailand."
Last year 10.8 million tourists came to Thailand and spent $7.7 billion, 6 percent of the country's gross domestic profit, said Somkid Jatusripitak, the deputy prime minister for economic affairs and tourism, in a speech this week. Tourism has permeated almost all walks of life and has become part of Thailand's image of itself. "The land of smiles wears a smile as always," Mr. Somkid said bravely.
A receptionist at a nearly empty seaside hotel here said he was sure that everything was safe. "We have video cameras everywhere," he said. "We can check everything. And in the garage we have a video camera. Every car that comes in, we have a record. And in the lobby also, and also outside the entrance."
Boonlua Chatree, who covers the police beat for the local weekly, Pattaya Mail, said the police were paying special attention to Middle Easterners, many of whom congregate in a small area known as Little Saudi. He said prejudice against Middle Easterners is quite strong here among both residents and visitors.
On what is called Walking Street, in the heart of the city's entertainment district, one open-fronted bar has posted a sign that reads: "No Arab people to sit down here. We do not want Arab people consuming alcohol or molesting women. We respect your belief in Islam."
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Subic Expansion Plans
June 3, 2003
SUBIC FREEPORT (AFP
When the last US naval ship sailed out of Subic Bay in 1992, so did the GI Joe-dollars that had fuelled the economy of surrounding towns for nearly half a century. Thousands of people who had traditionally relied on the Subic naval base found themselves jobless, while nightclubs that provided bawdy entertainment to American troops fell silent when the Senate ended the facility's lease contract.
"It was devastating and confusing. Nobody thought the US government would allow its base to close. There were no immediate offers for people like me, and my kids were going to college then," recalls Nick Leonzon, who had worked for the Americans as a public works executive at the base.
While there were talks on how to develop the abandoned Subic base, none at that time had a concrete plan to transform the 67,000-hectare facility into a money-making venture. Former President Fidel Ramos, however, declared the shuttered base a freeport where passing goods enjoyed lower tariffs and investors relocating to the enclave were given additional perks.
The government also scored a marketing coup when world leaders converged for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 1996, with multinational firms scrambling to set up shop here.
More than a decade after the closure, Subic is now a top ecotourism attraction and a bustling freeport hosting around 600 international companies that provide jobs to about 50,000 people - more than twice when the Americans were the employers. Exports generated mainly by Japanese and Taiwanese electronics factories in Subic have averaged about $1 billion in the past four years, while investments grew 51 percent over the year to P2.5 billion ($47.17 million) in 2002.
And as ports in Hong Kong and Singapore are slowly going over capacity, plans are afoot to expand Subic's deepwater port capable of accommodating the largest cargo and passenger vessels. Leonzon, now Subic's deputy port administrator, says the nine-year plan includes reclamation of about 30 hectares of land to expand the existing port, the first phase of which would likely be operational within the next two years. "We are now in the process of awarding the first phase of the port development project," Leonzon told AFP in his bayside office recently.
Outside, a huge US naval catamaran from Japan unloaded military equipment, vehicles and supplies for US marines in joint military exercises with local troops in the north, while a crane delivered precious cargo on to the port. Once completed in 2012, the port would able to accommodate 900,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers every year, about half Hong Kong's capacity of 1.8 million TEUs and very much below Singapore's 2.2 million TEUs, Leonzon said, citing his office's own studies. 'Very competitive' port "Based on this plan, we will be very competitive and this will be a very busy port that may attract shippers from around the world," he said. "Hong Kong and Singapore may have already reached their full capacity and we are offering an alternative."
Leonzon said he hopes that container ships avoiding the former British enclave and the tiny Southeast Asian city-state because of the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) would look at Subic as an alternative cost-effective site. He points out that berthing fees are much cheaper and cargo could easily be brought to other countries en route Manila or aboard commercial planes that fly out of the nearby Subic International Airport regularly to South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The SARS outbreak "could be an advantage to a certain extent," with the Philippines reporting fewer SARS cases than Singapore and Hong Kong, among the hardest hit by the disease in Asia. "Furthermore, everybody who knows Subic port knows that it's one of the best developed by the US navy," said Leonzon. "This development project then would help equalize the playing field for us."
Filipino tourists as well as those from around Asia, meanwhile, have been flocking here in droves not only for duty-free shopping, but also for weekend vacations and outings in various beaches in Subic. Extreme water sports, like kayaking, scuba diving and parasailing, as well as jungle survival lessons taught by native Aeta tribesmen that had served under US troops, are top draws. A show that features false killer whales doing stunts with their trainers is also popular. Data from the Subic Bay Development Authority showed eight million local and foreign tourists visited the freeport in 2002, about 15 percent more than the previous year.
But the expansion work never seems to cease - with workers hammering away even at night to finish yet another hotel. "As they say, after the rain, there is always the colorful rainbow. We just can't discount the possibility that there will always be a better chance for development in Subic," Leonzon said.
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May, 2003
Bush 'upgrades' Philippines
WASHINGTON (CNN)
U.S. President George W. Bush is upgrading the status of the Philippines to that of a so-called "major non-NATO ally." Bush announced the change -- which will make the Philippines eligible for closer military ties with the U.S. -- after meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the White House Monday.
The Philippines will join nations like Australia, Egypt and Israel, enjoying greater access to U.S. defense equipment and supplies. The United States will also evaluate the Philippines military to help it expand and modernize, Bush said. The war against terrorism is far from over, he said, describing Arroyo as "a strong ally and friend." "The Philippine government is strongly committed to defeating terrorists operating in its own part of the world," he said. "The United States is committed to helping when asked."
Arroyo has shown courage in her fight to oust terrorists from the Philippines, and her nation deserves U.S. military and economic aid, Bush said. Political extremism in the Philippines is closely linked to poverty, Arroyo said, urging Bush to help address economic problems in the country. "Poverty and terrorism are twin evils that we must fight. "For the Philippines, we consider the U.S. a strategic partner, not only in security matters, but also in the economy in the fight against poverty."
Arroyo authorized military attacks on Saturday against "embedded terrorist cells" blamed for recent bombings and other attacks in the Mindanao region. The Philippines military said Sunday it killed nearly 70 Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in the first day of the renewed crackdown.
The MILF denies any connection to terrorists, despite intelligence and documentation, some of which has been reviewed by CNN, showing the group has operated training camps for al Qaeda in the Philippines. Arroyo also has targeted the Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf. Last year, the United States offered a $5 million reward for the capture of five leaders of Abu Sayyaf who kidnapped three U.S. citizens in 2001.
In addition, U.S. Special Forces have helped train Filipino forces in the southwestern Philippines in a project aimed at wiping out Abu Sayyaf, which has admitted having ties to al Qaeda. The United States has designated Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group. "We in the Philippines know what it is to suffer from the hands of terrorism. We know the pain of terrorism," Arroyo said. Bush will visit the Philippines as part of his planned October trip to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Bangkok, Thailand, he said.
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US, RP vow to crush Abus 'once and for all'
Posted:11:57 PM (Manila Time) | May 20, 2003
By Juliet Javellana
Inquirer News Service
WASHINGTON (via PLDT) -- The United States and the Philippines recommitted themselves on Monday to a joint military effort to stamp out the Abu Sayyaf bandit group "once and for all." Hosting President Macapagal-Arroyo at the White House, US President George W. Bush also said Washington wanted to back renewed peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
"The President and I also reviewed the developments with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the MILF (sic). That group must abandon the path of violence. If it does so, and addresses its grievances through peaceful negotiations, then the United States will provide diplomatic and financial support to a renewed peace process," Bush said in his opening statement in a joint press conference with Ms Macapagal following their meeting at the Oval Office.
Without mentioning the Balikatan 03-1 exercises already planned for Sulu by name, Bush said he had agreed with Ms Macapagal that an unspecified number of American troops would be deployed to "support" an anti-Abu Sayyaf operation.
"The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to destroy the Abu Sayyaf (ASG) group once and for all," a joint statement they issued read. "Toward that end, President Bush and President (Macapagal) Arroyo agreed to hold another joint military activity in the near term, in which the United States will provide support to ongoing Armed Forces of the Philippines-led operations against the ASG."
Defense officials from both countries had failed to agree in February on a similar plan to deploy about 1,750 US troops to aid government soldiers.
Ms Macapagal did not spell out exactly how Bush envisions the role of the United States in any resumption of peace talks between the government and the MILF. But she clarified that it would not "supplant" the role played by Malaysia in the on-again, off-again peace process.
Ms Macapagal said that as early as two years ago, Bush told her that the United States would "help in the way we want it to be." The government this month had scrapped planned talks with the MILF, but Malacanang quoted Ms Macapagal as saying there was "always room for peace for those who turn their backs on terrorism."
Bush said US aid for the peace process depended on whether the MILF abandons violence and chooses "a peaceful reconciliation of issues." But he also warned: "If they continue to want to use terror and force, we will be involved to the extent that the President invites us to be involved, within the (limits of the) Constitution of the Philippine government."
In the joint briefing, Ms Macapagal justified her recent order for "selective" shelling and bombardment of identified MILF areas, following raids on town centers conducted by MILF rebels. Bombardment was the most "forthright way" to deal with the MILF, she said.
Bush had earlier publicly promised to make the Philippines a "major non-Nato ally" of the United States, clearing the way for increased US military loans, cut-price US military equipment and other training benefits for the Armed Forces. Bush also offered the AFP 20 UH-1H helicopters as "they become available" and said an additional 10 models would be deployed to ensure sufficient spare parts. He agreed that the US military would perform a comprehensive review of Philippine security needs and how it could help the AFP.
Bush's package did not appear to match the wish list of military equipment that AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Narciso Abaya had earlier laid out, which he said was needed to crush MILF rebels and Abu Sayyaf bandits. Abaya said the Philippines needed helicopters and transport aircraft, improved communications capability and naval vessels, which would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."
US forces participating in Balikatan 03-1 are expected to arrive as early as next month. But there was no detail in the joint statement of the rules of engagement for the US force, nor information on how large it would be. With reports from Inquirer wires
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Finn case no SARS; RP passes 20-day test
Posted:0:00 AM (Manila Time) | May 21, 2003
By Armand Nocum and Christine Avenda�o
Inquirer News Service
THE PHILIPPINES on Tuesday cleared the last obstacle to its getting off the international list of SARS-affected countries. Dr. Jean Marc Olive, World Health Organization representative to the Philippines, said test results on the 27-year-old Finn, who was feared to have contracted SARS in the Philippines and who fell ill hours after arriving in Finland on May 14, yielded negative of the SARS virus.
"We just received a message that ... tests done on his stool samples ... were negative for coronavirus," Olive said in a telephone interview with the Inquirer. Olive said the Finn was "responding very well to antibiotics."
SARS, which is caused by a virus, cannot be treated with antibiotics. Olive said he did not see any impediment to the Philippines being removed from the WHO list of SARS-affected countries. Olive said he had been doing his best to ensure that by Wednesday or Thursday, the WHO would have issued a declaration that the Philippines is SARS-free.
The WHO requires that there be no SARS infection in an area for 20 consecutive days before it removes that country from its list. Tuesday marked the 20th day the Philippines has had no new reported case of local transmission. In an interview with reporters, Dr. Maria Consorcia Quizon, head of the National Epidemiology Center, said Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit had brought the country's request for de-listing to WHO officials in Geneva.
Quizon quoted Dayrit as saying that "WHO officials in Geneva are amenable to removing the Philippines from the list." Dayrit is in Geneva to attend the WHO's annual general assembly.
But even as health officials sought to get the Philippines off the WHO list, a Senate hearing was told Tuesday that government agencies had yet to get hold of the 1-billion-peso SARS fund set aside by President Macapagal-Arroyo more than a month ago. The director of the Bureau of Quarantine and International Surveillance, Dr. Edgardo Sabitsana, told a hearing conducted by the Senate committee on health that his agency had been using its own money to gear up its staff who are in the frontline in the fight against SARS.
Sabitsana said the fund was supposed to be released under a memorandum of agreement between the DOH and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). But apparently, he said, certain procedures have to be followed first before the funds could be released. Sabitsana told reporters after the hearing that his agency had so far spent 1 million pesos for the purchase of supplies such as protective gowns, masks and alcohol for its staff.
Some 30-40 quarantine staff are assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport; others are deployed in major ports in Cebu City, Davao City, Clark, Batangas City and San Fernando, La Union. Sabitsana said the bureau had requested the DOH to reimburse it for its expenditures. He said he was told that the first tranche of the P1 billion, amounting to 100 million pesos, would be released in a few days.
Sabitsana said he had submitted a list of the immediate needs of the bureau, including more fuel for boats used to inspect vessels from SARS-affected countries like China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., who authored one of three bills proposing amendments to the Quarantine Law, urged the government to immediately release the SARS funds.
"It's a good thing that the SARS problem here is not that widespread, otherwise we would have a much bigger problem because the funds are not yet available," Villar told reporters.
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SARS Situation in the Philippines
- Negligible risk to Travellers
Manila -- The World Health Organization (WHO) today re-affirmed that the Philippines presents a negligible risk to travellers. "There are no known cases of SARS in the community," said WHO's Philippine representative Jean-Marc Oliv�. "The 10 cases that have been reported have all been isolated in hospital. Health authorities know the full chain of transmission linked to one imported case and are confident they have identified and isolated all the contacts."
Dr Oliv� suggested there was confusion in some international circles following WHO's decision to list the Philippines as having "Medium" local SARS transmission meaning that the disease had been transmitted from one person to another, and from that second person to a third. In the Philippines, the last case of SARS occurred in a case that had already been isolated. The diagnosis was made at the end of March and no further cases involved with this person have been found.
In the case of the transmission involved, a nursing assistant who returned from Toronto infected her father. He, in turn, infected a doctor and nurse during a procedure to put him on a breathing apparatus. The daughter and father died, but two of the other cases have been discharged from hospital and the others are recovering in isolation.
Dr Oliv� stressed that the risk of infection in the Philippines was negligible. "At this point, it is unrealistic for any country to impose a travel ban on the Philippines, or to impose restrictions on travellers from the Philippines," he said. "As long as visitors take the normal precautions that they do in their home country, they will have no problems."
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Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway construction project is
on schedule
May 9, 2003
The P19-billion, 90-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway construction project funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is on schedule, Bases Conversion Development Authority vice-president for operations, Rex Antonio Chan reported yesterday.
Chan said the detailed design for the Clark to Tarlac segment (package 2) will be completed next month while the Subic to Clark segment (package 1) will be finished by September this year. The toll road is being built to interconnect the Subic Bay special economic and freeport zone in Zambales, the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga and the Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac.
Chan also reported that the right-of-way (ROW) acquisition process for package 2 has reached more than percent of its target. More than 50 percent of the remaining areas for acquisition particularly in the areas to be affected in the Subic to Clark segment of the superhighway have been already acquired. Chan said the BCDA and the Japanese Joint Venture of Pacific Consultants International. Katahira and Engineers International and Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. have been fast-tracking all necessary activities over the last months to ensure completion of the toll road project as early as 2005. He attributed the current smooth and fast-tracked mode of the major components of the project particularly in relation to the ROW to the cooperation and support being provided by local government leaders in Central Luzon to the proposed toll project.
Construction of the 44-km. Clark to Tarlac segment is expected to start before the year ends, while the Clark to Subic route will commence by March 2004. The expressway is expected to spur economic development in Central Luzon and at the same time provide a direct, efficient and nearly exclusive road connection between major economic zones in Central Luzon as it is envisioned to enhance the synergistic integrated development of the region.
Major components of the project are a four-lane, 94-km long highway, three major and 35 minor bridges, 14 major interchanges and over 25 underpasses. Eighty-five percent of the funding or P18.74 billion will come from the proceeds of the JBIC loan while the remaining 15 percent (P2.81 billion) will be provided by BCDA representing the governments counterpart fund.
The toll road will form part of an extensive road network that will link the northeastern area to the southwestern portion of Central Luzon. It should significantly strengthen the alliance between Subic and Clark that would eventually translate major economic development opportunities for the region and the country as envisioned by the Arroyo administration and its other lead proponents.
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A Famed Philippine Family's Bubbly Maverick
May 3, 2003
By SETH MYDANS
MANILA
SHE's a fool for sweet-and-sour pork. Her son has big feet. She collects Swatch Bijoux bracelets. She likes to walk around the house naked. The best colors for her skin tone are aqua blue, minty green, bubble-gum pink and melon orange. "Red also never fails, especially on Mondays" - to start her week off happily.
These are just a few of the things we know about Kris Aquino, 32, bubbly talk-show hostess and youngest daughter of Corazon Aquino, the former Philippine president. How do we know these things? We know because she tells us - on her morning celebrity talk show, on her evening game show, on her weekend gossip hour and anywhere else we might be listening.
She tells us everything. To know Ms. Aquino is to really know her. She is a compulsive gossip, and her subject is herself - her terrible choices in men, the stresses of single parenthood, her dramas with her long-suffering mother. "If you say anything about me, you can say - the word is tactless," she said. "When I open my mouth, people know that whatever comes out is true."
The strange thing is that it's weirdly interesting. This is not, after all, just another bright plastic bauble in the world of entertainment. This is the bearer of the Aquino name, the most revered and unsullied in the nation. First was her father, Benigno, the assassinated challenger to former President Ferdinand Marcos, and now a national martyr - the man who told his self-doubting countrymen that, yes, "the Filipino is worth dying for."
Then came his widow, Joan of Arc in a yellow dress, leading her people from the darkness of the Marcos dictatorship on the wings of prayer and people power. It has fallen to their youngest daughter to transform the family narrative from a passion play into a soap opera. If the previous Aquino generation shimmered in the glow of a halo, this one is irradiated by limelight.
Where the mother's charisma blossomed from real diffidence, the daughter's is that of the family cutup, charmed by her own charm. Where the mother is demure, the daughter is the type to ask a male model on her talk show: "Are you sure you don't use steroids? You can tell by looking at the nipples, you know."
She is promiscuously friendly - not a family trait - inviting onto her show the sons of two former presidents driven from power in disgrace by her mother, Mr. Marcos and Joseph Estrada. Unlike her mother, who has remained loyal to her late husband, Ms. Aquino has been unable to resist a series of actors and basketball players, usually married and a good deal older than she is. Her 8-year-old son, Josh, is the product of one of these liaisons.
NOBODY, inside or outside her family, seems to approve. The tut-tutting can be deafening. "She makes me look like a nun," said Imee Marcos, the eldest daughter of the former president, who is now a member of Congress. It was she who caused the biggest social scandal of her father's presidency when she ran off with a professional golfer, Tommy Manotoc, from whom she is now separated.
Ms. Aquino's sourest critic seems to be her own brother, Benigno S. Aquino III, who is also a congressman. "The whole family is distressed," he said when yet another tiresome scandal made the rounds last year. "We hope that she gets enlightened." He said his mother and sister were shunning each other and that his mother "is leaving it all to God."
Ms. Aquino was driven to penitence, telling a television audience, "I have shamed my family." Clearly, she craves her mother's approval, and she presents her with expensive gifts like jewelry and paintings. "I know my mom still loves me," she said last year. "She'll always be my mom, come what may." Her mother forgives and forgives, waiting for her youngest child to grow up. "I'm not as bad as everybody's portraying me to be," Ms. Aquino pleaded then. "If only they would give me love, understanding, good advice."
But soon the sun was shining brightly again. Nothing keeps Ms. Aquino down for long. Of all the family, she is the most like her father, voluble, energetic, extroverted, optimistic - a natural politician. She started as a child, climbing onstage to sing at her father's campaign rallies. "She was adorable when she was 8, and she's still at it," said Girlie Rodis, who was her first manager. "You never know what's going to pop out of her mouth next."
When her father was killed in 1983, she rose to address a huge crowd of mourners, a 12-year-old girl with big glasses. When her mother took office in 1986, her sisters, Pinky, Ballsy and Viel, pitched in as presidential assistants. Her brother, known as Noynoy, was dutiful and serious. But young Kris had plans of her own. She started shopping for a theatrical agent, and she began a lifelong habit of falling in love with the wrong men, starting off with an actor.
Her professional career got under way a decade ago when her mother left office - a succession of high-energy talk shows and regular appearances in movies. As her mother faded into the background in the role of national conscience, Ms. Aquino became more prominent. Her shopping sprees, her soul-searching about liposuction and her trips to the beach with Josh are part of the national discourse now.
"Personally, I'm not interested," said a gossip columnist who did not want his name used when actually gossiping."She does all these private things in public. I wish she'd keep it to herself." A STRANGE, subversive thought arises. We have seen this before in Philippine public life. The vividness and impulsiveness and hunger for attention, the unabashed self-absorption, the ambition and the calculating mind hidden somewhere behind the fluff - there is no one she resembles so much as Imelda Marcos, the former first lady.
Mrs. Marcos, with her shoes and her jewels and her grandiosity, is of course in a class by herself, one of the stupendously strange egos on the world stage. But Ms. Aquino is still young, still searching, still inventing herself. She will not be a talk-show hostess forever. Something bigger is waiting for her. "My dad would always ask me, `Do you want to be president some day?' " she said. "I'd say, `I want to be a movie star.' I think that's why my brother resents me. Because I'm the one."
Her mother has secret thoughts about this too, she said. "She sees that there's something in my blood that comes from my dad," Ms. Aquino said. "She really believes in destiny. She believes it's my destiny to be in politics." Ms. Aquino will settle for nothing less than the Senate, and she has done the math. "Not 2004," she said. "I'll still be too young. Not 2007. Josh will be only 12. Maybe 2010. In 2010 I'd be - how old would I be? - I'll be 39."
It is true that some might recoil at the prospect of a Senator Gidget. But oddly enough, Ms. Aquino said, her flightiness is apparently an asset. Advertising surveys have shown that her credibility as a chatterbox is high. If she says she uses a product, she probably does. When the time is right and she decides to run, she said, "I know I'd win."
In the meantime, her sunny face and fast-paced chatter and her wardrobe of aqua blue, minty green and bubble-gum pink light up television screens every day. She starts off with her chat show, "Morning Girls." She gossips on Sundays on "The Buzz." In the evenings she gives away money on a light-hearted quiz show, her signature production. Its title is, "Are You Game?" and its recurrent refrain, which she shouts out together with the audience, could be a motto for Ms. Aquino's adventurous life: "I'm game!"
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$30-M package in
the bag for Macapagal's US Visit
Posted: 11:38 PM (Manila Time) | Apr. 29, 2003
By Norman Bordadora and Dona Pazzibugan
Inquirer News Service
WHEN she comes home after her top-level tete-a-tete with United States President George W. Bush, among the goodies in President Macapagal-Arroyo's bag will be the Philippines' 30-million-dollar share in the US foreign military finance (FMF). This is a "done deal," according to Ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario.
Ms Macapagal's state visit to the United States will push through this month, although it will be shorter than originally planned. Spokesperson Ignacio Bunye confirmed Tuesday that the visit, first scheduled April 1-5, had been reset to May 19-21. The President called off the trip as early as March 13 due to the impending United States attack on Iraq. Bunye was asked over Radyo ng Bayan to confirm a White House statement confirming the new schedule. He said the dates had been jointly agreed upon.
In an interview at the Inquirer offices, Del Rosario explained that the FMF share, intended for the country's counterterrorism campaign, was part of the supplemental budget for the US war on Iraq. He said it would soon be released to the Armed Forces, on top of a 30-million-dollar grant under the US economic support fund (ESF). Del Rosario said both 30-million-dollar packages were the results of the Philippines' moral and political support to the US-led coalition against Iraq.
Bunye did not say why the state visit had been cut to just three days, but he noted that Ms Macapagal was one of the "very few'' world leaders invited to Washington this year.
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In SARS, Gordon Sees Silver Lining
April 2003
For every cloud there is a silver lining. Tourism and health officials tried to put a more positive face on the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) saying the Philippines has become a safe haven for tourists planning to travel to Asia. In a joint press conference, Health Secretary Manual Dayrit and Tourism chief Richard Gordon assured the public that the Philippines has so far been spared of the effects of SARS, a mysterious flu-like disease that has plagued 14 countries so far, including popular tourist destinations like Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Singapore.
"The DOH is closely monitoring the extent of SARS worldwide and their swift action to contain the proliferation of (the disease) in the country is definitely good for international and domestic tourism," Gordon said. He said because of the country's "safe" status, it becomes a more attractive option for tourists who want to travel in this region than countries where the threat of disease is high.
"Even our countrymen who are planning to take a vacation outside the country will likely choose to stay here and visit our magnificent provinces, and this could only help our local tourism industry," Gordon added.
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U.S. Troops Arrive in Philippines for War Game
April 17, 2003
By REUTERS
SUBIC BAY, Philippines (Reuters) - U.S. troops arrived at a former U.S. military base on Thursday for joint military exercises with Philippine soldiers aimed at dealing with security and terrorist threats.
High-speed vessels carrying the first group of 450 U.S. military personnel and equipment arrived at the former U.S. naval base in Subic Bay, north of Manila for the two-week exercise that begins on April 25 dubbed ``Balikatan,'' a Filipino word meaning shoulder-to-shoulder.
The annual war game is separate from a U.S.-Philippine anti-terror training exercise to be held on the Sulu islands in the country's restive south, where Muslim rebels are based. Lieutenant Tryiokasus Brown, spokesman for the U.S. troops participating in the exercise on the main northern island of Luzon, told Reuters the soldiers -- mostly from the marine corps -- came from Okinawa, Japan.
A total of about 1,200 U.S. forces and 2,500 Philippine troops will take part in the training to be conducted at three points on Luzon, including the former U.S. Clark air base. The military exercise on Sulu was originally set to be held earlier this year, but was delayed by controversies over whether U.S. soldiers would fight Muslim rebels, which would violate the Philippine constitution.
``There would be no combat role to be assigned to the Americans. Their's would be merely to assist, advise, and support our operations,'' said Philippine armed forces spokesman Lieutenant-General Rodolfo Garcia. Philippine troops have been battling for years groups seeking a Muslim state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.
The most notorious, Abu Sayyaf, which mainly engages in kidnapping for ransom, has been tagged by Washington as a terrorist group with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The Philippines has been vocal about its support for Washington's war on terror and was one of the first countries to join the ``coalition of the willing'' in the war against Iraq.
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Macapagal pays heavy price for stand in Iraq war
Posted: 0:00 AM (Manila Time) | Apr. 11, 2003
By Carlito Pablo
Inquirer News Service
PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday said she paid a heavy political price for supporting the United States-led war against Iraq. President Macapagal admitted that her poll ratings plunged to negative 14 because of her decision to have the country become part of the so-called "coalition of the willing.''
Ms Macapagal, however, indicated that the drop in the ratings is only temporary and that an improvement is expected because of the victorious turnout of the conflict. "When I announced my decision, my popularity went down to negative 14 but let's now look at the present situation,'' the President said in an interview over radio station dwIZ.
President Macapagal, however, is getting the appreciation of coalition partners, particularly Great Britain. The President hosted a lunch with visiting London Mayor Alderman Gavyn Arthur, who later described her in a media briefing as an "impressive lady.'' Arthur said that Ms Macapagal is an "international figure supporting the coalition'' and that her support is "so very much appreciated'' by his country.
In his regular media briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said that Ms Macapagal had been "alerted'' of the results of a Social Weather Stations survey. Bunye explained that the survey conducted from March 10 to 25 "coincided with pre-war jitters'' as the general sentiment among the Filipinos then was one of opposition to the war.
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Iraqi diplomats expelled on suspicion
of spying
Posted: 11:38 PM (Manila Time) | Mar. 27, 2003
By Michael Lim Ubac and Armand N. Nocum
Inquirer News Service
TWO Iraqi diplomats have left the country after being expelled on suspicion of spying, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said Thursday. The two, First Secretary Abdul Karim Shwaikh and commercial attache Karim Nassir Hamid, quietly flew out of Manila at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday on Egypt Air.
Ople on Monday had ordered the Iraqis to leave the Philippines within 72 hours for alleged espionage. He said they had been caught taking pictures of the American Cemetery at Fort Bonifacio on the eve of a memorial service there in November 2002. The US Embassy canceled the event at the last minute, citing a terrorist threat. When the Iraqi diplomats saw that they were being followed by police, they changed taxis several times to try to escape, Ople said.
Some members of Congress, however, had asked Ople to produce the evidence against the two diplomats to dispel speculation that the government was penalizing innocent Iraqis just to please Washington, which had asked some countries to expel Iraqi diplomats in their midst. Ople told a press conference Thursday the expulsion of Shwaikh and Hamid did not signal a diplomatic break with Iraq.
He said that despite what happened, "we continue to maintain our relations with Iraq." He said the Philippine embassy in Baghdad remained open. Their plane was to take the two diplomats to Cairo, Egypt, and from there they would have to make their way overland to Damascus, Syria, and then on to Baghdad. First Secretary Swaikh took his family with him, Ople said.
It was unclear how the Iraqis would make their way to Baghdad, which had been under heavy bombardment and surrounded by American and British forces. Last month, the government expelled Iraqi Second Secretary Husham Husain on suspicion of links to the Abu Sayyaf, which in turn had been tied to the al-Qaeda terrorist group of Osama bin Laden.
Husain's cell phone was linked to a cell phone that was used to trigger a bomb that killed three people, including an American serviceman, in Zamboanga City last year. The Iraqi Embassy denied any connection with the Abu Sayyaf. "(I'm) convinced they had engaged in activities that were contrary to their status as diplomats," the foreign secretary said.
Last week, authorities arrested 10 Iraqis and one Saudi national in Luzon and Mindanao, alleging they were part of an "established network" with ties to the first expelled Iraqi diplomat, Husain. Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo had said the 11 would be deported, but on Thursday she said they would be charged instead with violation of immigration laws and for being threats to national security.
Still, days after their arrest, immigration officials said, the 11 had yet to hire lawyers. Arvin Santos, head of the Bureau of Immigration's special task force on deportation, said "not a single lawyer has entered his appearance for any of the suspects.''
Santos said the 11 men would be given due process, but this could not begin if they had no legal representation. Domingo said the Iraqis and Saudi will remain in detention because of the charges against them, which are supported by intelligence reports. She said the bureau had "enough prima facie evidence" against them.
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Rehabilitation plan eyed for Mindanao
Posted: 11:38 PM (Manila Time) | Mar. 27, 2003
By Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer News Service
FOREIGN Secretary Blas Ople announced Thursday that his office was drafting a "Marshall Plan" for Mindanao, which would require the United States to infuse an additional 100 million dollars to accelerate the region's economic and social development. Ople told reporters that the blueprint for a development master plan would "take our cooperation with the US on counter-terrorism to new levels."
He said that the master plan was imperative to "systematically" address the root causes of terrorism "in terms of poverty and destitution among our Muslim brothers," and to bring an enduring peace in the troubled region. Ople made the announcement after US officials admitted that the Philippines would benefit from the 74.7-billion-dollar supplemental budget US President George Bush presented to the US Congress on Tuesday.
The amount earmarked for the Philippines as a member of the US-led coalition of the willing was unclear, but the estimate suggests that the country stands to receive some 14 million dollars. Ople revealed that the country had been assured of an initial 100 million dollars for the "Marshall Plan," "and we will have a share in the supplemental (war) budget requested by President Bush."
The Marshall Plan is a massive rehabilitation plan for Europe after the second world war. "Of the 74.7-billion-dollar amount, there is no specific allocation. But we hope to (get) from the so-called millenium account, which contemplates successive tranches of 5 million dollars every five years . . . that is in the US budget," he said.
The Bush administration, however, had yet to agree on the "Marshall Plan," said Ople.
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U.S. State Department warning to Americans living in or traveling to the
Philippines
April 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) --The U.S. State Department has urged Americans living in or traveling to the Philippines to be on a heightened level of awareness and to exercise great caution. The state department said it based its decision on recent "security-related incidents" and the possibility of future terrorism, kidnappings, violence or other criminal activity.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila is asking Americans to avoid crowded places, including nightclubs and bars, and to be extra careful in public places, such as shopping malls or while riding public transportation. The warning urges U.S. citizens to defer non-emergency travel to the islands of Mindanao, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Jolo.
Philippine police have linked a Muslim separatist group to the bombing of an airport waiting room in the southern Philippines Tuesday that killed 21 people, including one American, and wounded 148 others. Another bomb exploded shortly thereafter in Tagum, the capital of Davao del Norte Province in Mindanao, injuring several people.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has denied involvement in the airport bombing and a smaller explosion that took place Tuesday in Tagum City, north of Davao, Kabalu said.
The warning comes at a time of rising uncertainty on the island, where in the last few weeks there have been escalating attacks between the Philippine military and rebels. In October last year, at least 20 people were killed, including one American soldier, and more than 100 people were injured in various bombing attacks in Zamboanga City and the surrounding area, and in Kidapawan, Cotabato Province.
Similar explosions occurred in December and other explosive devices have been discovered and defused prior to detonation in these and other areas of Mindanao. Despite U.S. interest in sending troops to the Philippines to help combat terrorism, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said this week that U.S. troops would have no combat role in her country as it battles Muslim separatists. U.S. troops have been used to help train Philippine soldiers, however.
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Pentagon Backs Away From Plan to Commit Troops to
Combat in Philippines
Friday, February 28, 2003
WASHINGTON � Faced with political turmoil in the Philippines, the Pentagon Friday backed away from a plan to launch a joint combat offensive against Muslim rebels there. A week after defense officials announced they had an agreement to deploy more than 1,000 U.S. troops in March in an effort to rout Abu Sayyaf forces from the island of Jolo, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he didn't know how many would go, or when, or exactly what they would do.
The Pentagon's initial announcement of planned joint operations -- which could draw Americans into combat -- had stirred controversy in the Philippines. The former U.S. possession prohibits foreign groups from engaging in combat unless allowed by a treaty.
"We have to find an approach that will help them without violating their constitution," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. He said the two governments were working on details of an undetermined kind of joint counter-terror effort. Rumsfeld said it was likely the end agreement "will have an intelligence component, a command and control component, a training component, some exercises, and whatever it ends up being, it will clearly be consistent with their constitution, and it will be consistent with what we tell you we are doing."
Rumsfeld's comments followed a weeklong diplomatic row that played out in the press in both nations with Manila repeatedly denying there would be a U.S. combat role and saying Americans were coming for a "training exercise." Washington stuck to its version all week, calling it a plan for "joint operations" until Rumsfeld's news conference, which followed a Pentagon luncheon with Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.
Officials had hoped the two could have a joint news conference, but Rumsfeld came instead with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, his usual partner for briefing reporters. Reyes met with reporters earlier in the day, saying the two countries were "groping for the exact term" to describe the joint operation.
He said that under the Philippine definition of training, people train and then there is a test mission -- trainees can't graduate until they've gone on an actual operation that includes "an encounter in a hostile area." "Some students die, and the others graduate. That's our definition," he said.
Apparently attempting to avoid the words "combat," "joint operations" and "exercise" on Friday, Rumsfeld referred to the next effort on Jolo as an "activity" and once started to say exercise but ended up saying "exer-activity." Last February, some 1,200 Americans, including 160 special forces, were sent to the country in what officials said was a mission to "train, advise and assist" Filipino forces battling the radical Muslim rebels on the island of Basilan.
Manila called that effort "an exercise" as well, and the Pentagon didn't object, at least publicly. Months of negotiations went into trying to come up with a plan for a new effort -- this time on Jolo. One official said Friday that the problem began Feb. 17, when Manila announced President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had approved a new joint exercise, which the Pentagon viewed as a misrepresentation of what had been agreed to.
The Pentagon, in turn, announced a few days later that it was really "joint operations." Three officials said that because the operations presented more risk of combat and casualties for Americans, Rumsfeld said he didn't want to "dance around the words," as one official put it.
Rumsfeld said that whatever is decided "will be known, and it will be known to the Congress, and it will be known to you. Pressed on whether there would still be joint combat operations, Rumsfeld said: "The fact is that the way you phrased it would be perfectly comfortable from our standpoint. From their standpoint, it would be inconsistent with their constitution Therefore, what we have to do is find an approach where we can provide the maximum benefit to them and do it in a way that is not inconsistent with their circumstance."
The Feb. 20 Pentagon announcement on joint operations was made to a number of news organizations by a senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity and confirmed by several others. When pressed on that, Rumsfeld said: "You weren't told by me," then complained that the press often prints "leaked" information.
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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects the peso to appreciate
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects the peso to appreciate to as high as 52 to the dollar by the second half of the year. Expressing optimism that the market would eventually calm down in the wake of the impending US-Iraq war, BSP Governor Rafael B. Buenaventura told reporters that the weakness of the peso against the dollar is largely temporary.
"I'm convinced that the weakness is temporary," Buenaventura said, adding that "when the geopolitical situation is resolved, whichever way, it'll go back to normal." "Normal," according to Bue-naventura, is an exchange rate of 52 to 53 to the dollar, well within the projected rate for 2003 of 52 to 54 to $1.
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Military Action
Aims to Cement Philippine Ties
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 22, 2003; Page A21
In the world of international terrorism, the several hundred Muslim extremists in the Philippines who call themselves Abu Sayyaf constitute a relatively small outfit with a reputation more for local thuggery than global terror. So why is the Pentagon committing 3,000 Army, Marine and Navy personnel to a new combat operation with the Philippine armed forces to try to quash Abu Sayyaf?
Administration officials and regional specialists offered several answers yesterday. "First, it looks like a chance to go after low-hanging fruit -- to move against a not very formidable adversary in the war on terrorism," said Derek Mitchell, an Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It also is a chance to finish a job begun last year and, by doing so, demonstrate continued commitment and strengthen a critical alliance with the Philippines."
Last year's effort, which involved the dispatch for six months of 1,200 troops who were restricted to noncombat advisory roles, chased Abu Sayyaf off the island of Basilan but left most of the group's leaders at large. This time, Pentagon officials have made clear that U.S. forces are going to the island of Jolo -- Abu Sayyaf's latest stronghold -- ready to fight and to remain for some time, with no preset endpoint.
The expanded, more aggressive mandate granted by the Philippines to U.S. forces presumably contributed to the Bush administration's willingness to reengage. So reportedly did fresh signs of what some U.S. government analysts consider links between Abu Sayyaf, other terrorist groups and Iraq.
Tying Abu Sayyaf convincingly into any major terrorist network has been a challenge for the Bush administration. Evidence cited a year ago of a connection with al Qaeda appeared dated and tenuous. It included a report that the group received money in the early 1990s from Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, brother-in-law of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who channeled funds to various militant Islamic groups. Also, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, was said to have trained some Abu Sayyaf members in explosives.
But whatever its original political aims, Abu Sayyaf had evolved in recent years into essentially a band of criminals who kidnapped, killed and otherwise terrorized Filipinos and Westerners. The broad war on terrorism may have been the official reason cited for last year's U.S. military foray into the Philippines, but a central underlying aim was to rescue Martin and Gracia Burnham, the missionary couple from Kansas kidnapped and held for ransom by Abu Sayyaf for more than a year.
No U.S. hostages are at issue this time. But American officials say an even stronger case exists now for pursuing Abu Sayyaf as a link in international terrorism. Details remain classified, but published reports have cited ties between Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, an extremist Islamic group centered in Indonesia. Last week, the Philippines ordered the expulsion of an Iraqi diplomat, Husham Hussein, after a government intelligence report said Hussein had cell phone contact with two Abu Sayyaf rebels before and after the Oct. 2 bombing in the city of Zamboanga that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier and two Filipinos. The Iraqi embassy in Manila has denied any connections between its staff and Abu Sayyaf.
"We're seeing more connections among all sorts of groups in the region than we had seen or noticed before," said a government official who monitors the area. "People are treating the idea of Abu Sayyaf's involvement more seriously." In broader terms, the new initiative is regarded by Pentagon officials as a strategic opportunity to reinforce a critical alliance with the Philippines -- an alliance battered a decade ago when U.S. forces pulled out of Clark and Subic bases. The Philippine government affirmed yesterday that it welcomed the joint operation, although potentially problematic differences emerged in how U.S. and Philippine authorities characterized the American participation.
Ignacio Bunye, a spokesman for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, insisted in remarks on government radio that the role of U.S. troops "would be purely training and advisory" and "their other services would involve civic and humanitarian projects." But Pentagon officials reiterated that a government-to-government agreement reached last week allows for U.S. forces to deploy in the field alongside Philippine troops and engage in combat operations.
The contrasting portrayals reflected the political sensitivity of the operation in a country where many remain wary of the return of large numbers of American forces. Under the terms of the new offensive, Philippine forces will have the lead, with U.S. troops assuming a supporting role -- a distinction that should help sidestep a provision in the Philippine constitution prohibiting foreign forces from carrying out unilateral combat missions. Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes plans to visit the United States next week for meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other administration officials.
But regional specialists warned yesterday that the Bush administration must remain mindful of how the Philippine public will perceive the conduct of American forces. Last year, U.S. troops generated particular goodwill by coupling their counterterrorism training with such civic actions as building roads and digging wells to promote development. "Going back in, we're building on the good faith generated by last year's effort," Mitchell said. "That has made us more confident about going even further this time. But we have to be careful. If we overplay our hand, there could be a backlash. We must demonstrate we're a constructive force and can bring stability."
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U.S. troops may fight in Philippines
Agreement could expand current U.S. role
WASHINGTON (CNN) --Some 350 U.S. special operations troops will join with the Philippine military in an open-ended mission to "disrupt and defeat" the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf rebel movement as soon as next month, Pentagon officials told CNN Thursday.
It would mark the first time in the war on terror that U.S. forces have assumed an active offensive role in the Philippines. "This will be a no-holds-barred effort," said one Pentagon official familiar with the planning. "This is not an exercise." But a spokesman for Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said any such plans have "not been finalized yet." This official said the government would have to change its constitution, which does not allow U.S. troops to go into combat in the Philippines. The Philippine official did say Reyes is going to the U.S. Pacific Command this weekend for meetings on the possible operation.
Pentagon officials said that while the Philippine government has not officially announced the operation, they said their understanding is that it's a "done deal." Abu Sayyaf was founded in 1998 when it splintered from another Muslim group that has been fighting for an independent state in the Philippines since the early 1990s. The U.S. State Department considers Abu Sayyaf the most violent of the Muslim groups in the Philippines.
In May 2001, after a series of Abu Sayyaf kidnappings that started in April 2000, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared "all-out war" against the group. Several terrorist groups currently operate in the Philippines, where there have been a series of deadly bombings, kidnappings and other attacks against both government and civilian targets. An October 2 incident blamed on Abu Sayyaf killed three people, including a U.S. Green Beret, in the port city of Zamboanga.
Pentagon officials say investigations following some of those attacks have turned up information indicating there may be a stronger link than earlier believed between the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah of Indonesia. Jemaah Islamiyah has connections to al Qaeda, officials said. A total of 1,750 U.S. troops could be used in the region and they may deploy within days, according to sources.
In addition to the special operations troops, about 400 support troops will be based at Zamboanga at a Philippine military base and an additional 1,000 Marines will be based offshore as a quick reaction force. The Marines would live aboard two amphibious assault ships: the USS Essex and the USS Ft. McHenry, which are based in Okinawa, Japan. A month of talks between the United States and the Philippine government has centered on sending U.S. Special Forces to Jolo as advisers and for possible joint operations -- including combat -- against the rebels, two officials said earlier this week.
The agreement will put U.S. forces back into the Philippines in a combined operational role, putting the troops side by side with Filipino troops during patrols, which could end up in combat situations. This would be the first time the Philippine government has allowed U.S. troops to operate in combat roles in the jungle terrain.
Last year, about 1,200 U.S. military trainers and support crews conducted a six-month training operation in which U.S. troops advised Philippine troops. During that time the Philippine troops, under the watch of U.S. troops, routed out most of the Abu Sayyaf rebels from the southern Philippine island of Basilan. Currently there are more than 1,300 U.S. troops in the Philippines conducting training exercises or providing security assistance, Pentagon officials said.
The Philippine military early this month announced it had underestimated by nearly 50 percent the number of Abu Sayyaf rebels and warned it would take a long time before they are wiped out. A Department of National Defense report submitted to the Philippine Congress late last year placed their strength at 250, down from 800 in 2001. But Chief of Staff Gen. Dionisio Santiago acknowledged February 5 that a recheck of military documents and figures showed a number closer to 500 -- most on the impoverished island of Jolo.
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Abu Sayyaf prepares
'welcome' for US forces
Posted:11:11 PM (Manila Time) | Feb. 19, 2003
By Arlyn de la Cruz
Inquirer News Service
THE ABU Sayyaf is preparing a "welcome party" for American soldiers who will take part in the Balikatan 03-1 exercise in Sulu, a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf said Wednesday. "We will welcome them in our little way . . . and that could be big," said Abu Soliman who has a five-million-dollar bounty on his head. The American forces may be ready to party.
The United States is negotiating details of a major new counterterror operation against the Abu Sayyaf that could include involvement of US Special Forces in combat, American defense officials said in Washington Tuesday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believe they have new information showing a stronger link than previously believed between the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiah of Indonesia, a group believed to be responsible for the bombing of Bali in October that left some 200 people dead.
In a phone interview, Soliman warned of a "sure surprise" awaiting the American troops. He did not give details but said the group was prepared for combat with US troops, who are expected to take part in the military exercise starting Feb. 24. "The facts of history are on our side and we don't mind being branded as terrorists," said Soliman, who intelligence reports say serves as the Abu Sayyaf's operation officer.
"In the Mindanao conflict, who is the real victim?" he said. Soliman is addressed as "the Engineer" by Abu Sayyaf members. He is an engineer by profession. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Monday that she had approved joint training in Sulu, where a number of Abu Sayyaf bandits fled at the height of the Balikatan 02-1 on the nearby island of Basilan. But Malaca�ang said that the Abu Sayyaf was not the target of Balikatan 03-1.
The Armed Forces said that although US troops would monitor "company level capability of their Philippine counterparts, they will not be involved in actual combat operations." But the Pentagon distanced itself from the announcement, saying that no decision had been made and that the new effort under discussion would go much further than just training.
A month of talks between the governments has centered on sending US special forces to Sulu as advisers and for possible joint operations-including combat--against the bandits, two Pentagon officials said. American troops in recent months have only been doing training and joint exercises with Filipino armed forces.
Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said the two governments were in "active discussions" about the terrorist threat in the Philippines "and how we can be of help." He declined to confirm if there could be joint operations. The proposal being discussed is to have American forces assisting, advising and operating with small groups of Filipino forces in the field. More meetings to work out details of a new operation are scheduled for next week.
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said that talks between US and Philippine officials would be held "in the next few days'' to finalize the details of Balikatan 03-1. Interviewed over the phone, Sulu Gov. Yusof Jikiri, who just arrived from pilgrimage in Mecca, said, "he was not consulted in the holding of the Balikatan exercise in Sulu." But Jikiri said he would talk to his local leaders about it. He expressed hope that the exercise would bring development to the province.
Asked if the presence of US troops would be involved in operations against the Abu Sayyaf, Reyes said the Americans would be in Sulu only to train and learn in the process. "In that process, it would be easier to fight the Abu Sayyaf there,'' he said. Even without the presence of American troops, clashes between the military and the bandits have erupted in Sulu.
Three soldiers and an Abu Sayyaf bandit were killed in an encounter in Patikul, Sulu, Wednesday morning. Brig. Gen. Renato Miranda, commander of the Marines Forces South, said the soldiers had recovered the body of the slain bandit. The Patikul clash came a day after government troops clashed with the group of Abu Sayyaf leader Mujiv Susukan in barangay Bandang, Maimbung town.
Col. Alexander Aleo, commander of the Army's 104th Infantry Brigade, said four bandits and a soldier were slain in the encounter. Susukan was seriously wounded in the encounter, according to Aleo. Miranda said the Marines were conducting an operation in barangay Tanum when they saw a group allied with Radulan Sahiron at 6:30 a.m.
"The elements of the 10th Marine Battalion Landing Team had chanced upon the group led by the Jal brothers triggering an hour-long encounter. Four of our soldiers were also wounded," Miranda said. In both clashes, the military had not sighted any of the hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf. The bandits are still holding four female members of the Jehovah's Witnesses Christian sect and three Indonesians.
Last year, 1,200 US advisers and support personnel participated in the joint military exercise, the largest American military counterterror operation outside the war in Afghanistan. The 160 advisers operated in Basilan, where bandits held American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham for more than a year. The program ended July 31 with most of the bandits killed, captured or dislodged from Basilan, officials said at the time. Mrs. Burnham was freed, but her husband was killed, during a Filipino operation against the bandits.
"During last year's operation on Basilan, the Armed Forces of the Philippines made significant progress," the Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said. "The number of Abu Sayyaf terrorists was cut by hundreds, displaced persons returned home and humanitarian assistance . . . (drew) public support for the fight against the terrorists." But the island of Jolo to the south has emerged as another trouble spot. The Philippine military early this month announced it had underestimated by nearly half the number of Abu Sayyaf bandits.
Last year, the military placed the Abu Sayyaf strength at 250, down from 800 in 2001. But AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Dionisio Santiago acknowledged on Feb. 5 that the number was closer to 500--most on the impoverished island of Jolo.
With reports from Martin P. Marfil in Manila; Julie S. Alipala, and Inquirer wires
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Hot showers, cold
beer � Clark offers R&R
By Juliana Gittler, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, February 20, 2003
CLARK AIR FIELD, Philippines � No way Clark Air Field is a Philippine Roppongi, the Tokyo bar district popular with many U.S. servicemembers. It�s not even Okinawa�s Gate 2 Street. The once-thriving American air base, now home to the Philippine air force and a business park, has at most a few hotels, a casino and a sprinkling of bars. But when you�ve spent weeks maneuvering around chickens and living in cramped tents in a spot as remote as it is sweltering, say U.S. Marines, Clark will do just fine.
Marines living in the dust and grime of Turnate, an isolated Philippine marine training camp two hours outside Manila, say that�s why they speak of Clark Air Field in reverential terms. In Turnate, they explain, recreation means either �the Stingray Club� � an open-air bar with two television sets � or a concrete slab with a wall for projecting movies at night.
�There�s not much to do there, and everything they do have closes really early,� said 2nd Lt. Erik Cooper, a weapons platoon commander. He�s with one of the battalion companies participating in MIX 03. In Clark, Cooper said, �they can go out on the town.� �You can get anything you need � beers, food,� said Sgt. John Costa, a weapons assault leader with the same battalion. �It�s definitely worth coming to. �This place gets extra points just because of where we�re coming from. But it�s great anyway.�
Marines taking part in MIX are from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, based out of Camp LeJuene, N.C., currently deployed to Okinawa. Liberty for them, if they�re lucky, is a one-time, two-day trip away. Most try to make the best of it by catching a helicopter to Clark for two days of warm showers, warm meals and some time to socialize. An adjacent duty-free zone offers a chance to go shopping.
�It�s pretty cool that there�s a McDonald�s here. It�s like home,� said Lance Cpl. Randy Tyson, a radio operator 8th Marines who bought a watch and sunglasses. Clark also is open and spacious, sells more than one type of beer and is home to members of the opposite sex. At Turnate, 600 guys are crammed into an area the size of a football field surrounded by mountains � and a blazing sun that ignites irritability levels. �There we�re all cramped into a little spot,� added Cooper. �Here, you can go off on your own.�
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Manila expels Iraq envoy over terror
link
Thursday, February 13, 2003 Posted: 1:15 AM EST (0615 GMT)
Iraq says the expulsion is part of a U.S. campaign to distort the image of
Iraq
MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines government is expelling an Iraqi diplomat, accusing the envoy of having ties to the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. Second Secretary Husham Husain has been given 48 hours to leave the country, according to a statement by Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople.
The Philippine government said it had intelligence that the Iraqi diplomat has ties to the Islamic extremist group, which is one of several outfits fighting for a separate Muslim state in the south of the predominantly Catholic Philippines. The Abu Sayyaf is also believed to have links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
The Iraqi embassy has denied the allegations, saying the expulsion was part of a U.S. campaign to distort the image of Iraq and link it to terror, according to Reuters. "What astonished us was the Philippine following the U.S. campaign of disinformation, which spread allegations about the Iraqi diplomat having links to the Abu Sayyaf group," the Iraqis said in a statement.
Meanwhile, up to 122 separatist rebels may have been killed during three days of fighting with the Philippine army following the breakdown of a short-lived cease-fire, according to Reuters news agency. The action on the southern island of Mindanao -- about 900 kilometers (575 miles) southeast of the capital of Manila -- occurred after guerillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front occupied a village.
"The latest count we have is 122 enemy killed," army division commander Major Generoso Senga told Reuters by telephone. "This includes 50 bodies seen in one area, but we are still verifying the report." The army said three soldiers had been killed and 15 wounded.
Army spokesman Major Julieto Ando said about 100 residents of Bual village, near the town of Tulunan, were trapped inside their homes after scores of rebels burst in looking for food, the Associated Press reports.
Government troops took positions around the village, and helicopter gunships hovered above, Ando said. Troops also rescued two families used as human shields by the MILF. The military accuses the MILF of sheltering members of the notorious kidnap gang Pentagon, which is on a U.S. terrorist list.
The Philippine government also accuses the MILF of massing troops in preparation for retaliatory strikes if the United States pushed ahead with an attack on Iraq. The MILF has an estimated 12,000 fighters on Mindanao.
The scene of the latest fighting is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Zamboanga City, where hundreds of U.S. troops are due to begin the second phase of exercises on February 24 aimed at improving the counter-terrorism skills of Philippine soldiers.
The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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Drive Is Stalled Against Rebels in Philippines
February 12, 2003
By CARLOS H. CONDE
DAVAO CITY, the Philippines, Feb. 11 - A government offensive against Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines - the largest operation since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took power two years ago - was suspended today amid widespread chaos in the region.
President Arroyo said today that she was declaring a cease-fire in deference to the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha, the Islamic feast of sacrifice marking the end of hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. But Jesus Dureza, a government spokesman, admitted that the offensive was "giving us problems."
But Ms. Arroyo did not order her troops to pull out, indicating that fighting could resume if negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which are scheduled to resume on Wednesday, do not make progress.
Brady Eviota, a peace advocate monitoring the situation in Mindanao, said there is a real danger that the fighting would erupt again if the troops are not pulled back. "The military would say, as they had in the past, that they are being attacked first, and so they have to defend themselves, cease-fire or no cease-fire," he said.
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the rebels, said the fighting will not end as long as the troops are in the villages. "There should be disengagement first," Mr. Kabalu said, adding "they were the ones who entered our areas." According to armed forces officials, seven rebels were killed and four soldiers were wounded as fighting erupted on Monday in a town called Pikit in central Mindanao, about 600 miles south of Manila. More than 20,000 Filipinos, most of them Muslims, were evacuated from their homes in far-flung villages of Pikit and another town, according to local officials and relief workers.
On Monday, the military sent in 26 truckloads of soldiers, many of them marines. Tanks, attack helicopters, fighter jets and artillery were also used. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes declared in Manila that the soldiers were "pursuing certain lawless elements, principally the kidnap-for-ransom groups."
Residents said that the troops moved into their villages as early as last Friday. They were told to evacuate because of impending military operations against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which officials accused of coddling members of a kidnapping gang called Pentagon.
By Monday, more than 20,000 residents had fled, mostly on foot, to the town center, bringing their meager belongings and farm animals, said The Rev. Bert Layson, the parish priest of Pikit. They found refuge at the town gym, in school buildings, even in a warehouse. These structures were quickly overwhelmed, forcing many refugees to pitch tents around the buildings. The lack of food, medicines and other supplies were creating major problems, said Father Layson.
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The peso is seen to slide to between 56 and 60 against the greenback due to rising concerns over the possibility of a US-led war in Iraq
A currency trader from a local bank said investors are getting increasingly nervous about a US strike in Iraq following the speech delivered by US President George W. Bush urging the United Nations Security Council to take military action against Iraq for its failure to discard banned weapons.
"There's a possibility that the peso could breach the 56 level because of the lingering concerns overseas. It might even hit P60," the currency trader said. He said the impending war has discouraged sentiment further as the worries continue to linger in the market. "We just want this issue in Iraq to get over and done with soonest possible time, regardless if there will be a war or not," he said.
Analysts said the speech of Bush seemed to convince some investors that the US was headed closer to war, a development that would eliminate the uncertainty pressuring the market but also raises questions about the economic impact.
Another currency trader said exporters and families of overseas Filipino workers are expected to hold on to their dollars until there is greater clarity in Iraq. The peso dropped to a fresh two-year low of P54.10 in early trading Friday but recovered slightly at the end of the session to close at 53.94. Traders said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was lending heavy support to the peso preventing it from breaching the psychological barrier of P54. They said the BSP intervened through its usual conduits Chase Manhattan and Standard Chartered Bank.
Currency traders said much of the currency's weakness stems from the increasing dollar requirements of importers like oil companies to finance unusually higher volumes of imports in preparation for the US-Iraq war. Oil firms were required by the Department of Energy to increase their inventory as a contingency measures in case the US-Iraq conflict escalates.
As importers try to beef up inventory, they scramble for dollars that create a shortage in the spot market and tend to push down the peso's value. Aside from the US-Iraq issue that is forcing local importers to jack up their dollar holdings, the peso is also weighed down by concerns over the budget deficit. The International Monetary Fund said the budget deficit this year would likely hit P262.88 billion against the government's target of P202 billion.
If a war does push through, it will affect overseas remittance, which is already being threatened by the delays in the final passage of the Anti-Money Laundering bill. About 1.3 million OFWs are based in the Middle East and they remitted around $8 billion dollars to the country last year. Warnings from the military that the Philippines could be a target of terrorist if the US launches its attack is also weighing on market sentiments.
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Zambales clashes kill 2 soldiers, 18 rebels
Posted: 1:11 AM (Manila Time) | Feb. 08, 2003
Inquirer News Service
IBA, Zambales--Two Army soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in continuing clashes that started on Saturday between government soldiers and communist rebels in the boundary of Zambales and Tarlac, Army reports said. Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia, Armed Forces of the Philippines vice chief of staff and commander of the Philippine Army's Northern Luzon Command, identified the fatalities as staff sergeant Elias Quijano and corporal William Diniego.
Wounded were staff sergeant Bayani Cabonilla, sergeant Allan Allen, and private first class William Cerquina, Edwin Talicas and Ernie Tugab. They were taken to the Army hospital in Camp Aquino in Tarlac City. Garcia said reports indicated that the New People's Army (NPA) rebels numbering more than 100, who fought two battalions of soldiers, also suffered "heavy casualties."
Initial reports gathered by the Inquirer showed that at least 18 rebels were killed in the clashes, but no police or Army official could confirm this. Garcia said the firefight started at 2 p.m. Saturday at the sitio of Cararited in the village of Cabauatan in Botolan town. He said soldiers from the Army's 24th Infantry Battalion moved in on the area after residents reported the presence of NPA rebels in a camp set up in the village.
He said the attack on the NPA camp forced the rebels to withdraw toward the sitio of Aliban in Botolan, near the Tarlac border. At the boundary, soldiers blocked the retreating rebels. This resulted in another clash that lasted until Sunday night, Garcia said. Meanwhile police commands in the provinces of Bulacan, Zambales and Tarlac were placed on "heightened alert" after police and the Army confirmed intelligence reports on the plan of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA to hold a plenum in the Central Luzon region in March.
According to a Feb. 3 memorandum from Central Luzon police director Oscar Calderon, the plenum will be held near the boundary of Rizal province and the town of Norzagaray in Bulacan.
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�Don�t disrupt operations at Subic�
By Bebot Sison Jr.
Publish Date: [Saturday, February 01, 2003]
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT � Investors in this special economic zone have appealed to President Arroyo to support them against moves that could disrupt their operations here. Jose Saddul, president of the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the freeport�s locators and workers are disappointed with reports about a protest rally being planned to pressure Malaca�ang to replace Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Felicito Payumo.
"During the first rally two years ago, the (chamber) sent a letter to Malaca�ang. Should there be any disturbance again, (we) would just remind President Arroyo about the request of the locators here," he said. Reports are circulating that former Zambales governor Amor Deloso would replace Payumo. Deloso�s spokesman Cesar Villa claimed they were just waiting for Mrs. Arroyo�s formal announcement.
This, as Olongapo City Mayor Katherine Gordon, reports said, would mobilize her supporters to stage rallies to hasten Payumo�s departure and push for her selection as the next SBMA head. Payumo, however, denied that he is on his way out. "I admit that there are those who covet my post and they are constantly lobbying in the Office of the President using their political connections but I�m not a bit bothered by it," he said.
The former three-term Bataan congressman said he would finish his "fixed term" as SBMA chairman. In a statement, the Olongapo City government said it "has no plan to rock the boat of an already sinking ship like the SBMA." A former volunteer, it said, brought up the idea of storming the freeport�s gates if the need arises. "Those words did not come from Mayor Kate Gordon. She was merely voicing a personal sentiment of a former volunteer who�s exasperated over the shabby treatment Olongapo and its people are getting from Payumo," the statement said.
"Mob rule does not and will never exist in Olongapo. The people of Olongapo are disciplined and decent Filipinos who will not hesitate to fight for their rights yet responsible enough to know when to draw the line between civility and barbarism," it added.
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RP posts highest growth since 1997
Posted:11:50 PM (Manila Time) | Jan. 30, 2003
By Doris C. Dumlao
Inquirer News Service
THE PHILIPPINE economy grew 4.6 percent last year, the highest since the 1997 Asian economic crisis, and could expand even at a faster pace this year, President Macapagal-Arroyo announced Thursday. In a news conference, Ms Macapagal said the result was well above the government's official gross domestic product forecast of 4 to 4.5 percent and the previous year's expansion of 3.2 percent.
Growth in the country's gross national product was at 5.2 percent in 2002 from 3.4 percent in 2001, spurred largely by a 15.5-percent growth in net factor income from abroad, mostly in the form of dollar remittances by Filipinos working and living abroad. "It is the strongest economic performance since the 1997 Asian economic crisis. This growth must now be translated to social equity," Ms Macapagal told reporters after announcing the figures.
GDP refers to the monetary value of all the goods and services produced by an economy over a specified period. It includes consumption, government purchases, investments and exports minus imports. It is perhaps the best indicator of the economic health of a country. The government is forecasting GDP growth this year at 4.2 to 5.2 percent, depending on the situation in Iraq and the effect of the El Nino weather phenomenon this year, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said.
Economists had predicted GDP growth of 4 to 4.5 percent in 2002, but some expressed surprise at the better than expected result. Neri said growth was achieved by strength in all sectors of the economy, with services posting the biggest upturn of 5.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent in 2001.
"Growth of all production sectors surpassed expectations," he said. Neri credited the strong growth in 2002 to macroeconomic stability achieved in the past two years, as well as structural reforms, such as the deregulation of the telecommunications and trade sectors and lowering of tariffs on imported raw materials.
"We continue to reap the benefits of deregulation in the telecommunication sector, which grew robustly at 8.9 percent. Trade continues to benefit from strong consumer demand, as giant local retailers opened up new malls in regions outside Metro Manila," he said. Even agriculture, which felt the initial effects of the El Nino phenomenon in 2002, grew 3.5 percent compared with 3.7 percent in 2001.
"The slide in palay production was mitigated by measures, such as the distribution of high-yielding and certified seeds and the rehabilitation of irrigation facilities," Neri said. Officials blamed slowing growth in the farm sector on a dry spell during the second and third quarters that ravaged rice, corn and other major crops.
Industrial growth also rose by 4.1 percent in 2002 from 1.3 percent in 2001 due largely to increased natural gas production from the Malampaya field off the coast of the western Philippines, Neri said. Ms Macapagal pledged to translate the growth into social equity, saying the government would step up agricultural, housing and transport projects. The President has said she will make the economy her priority in her remaining year in office.
The 55-year-old economist, who took office two years ago after mass protests ousted her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, on corruption charges, said last month she would not run for president in 2003 elections. Despite the strong growth, the economy is undermined by budget deficit problems, weak tax collection, pervasive graft, wilting investor confidence and security threats from leftist and Muslim rebel groups.
A ballooning budget deficit, which hit a record high 212.7 billion pesos in 2002, unemployment at more than 10 percent and poverty have hampered the government's efforts to improve the economy. Looking ahead, the government said the 4.2-percent GDP forecast was based on a "worst-case scenario" that oil prices would rise and exports would fall due to a war in Iraq.
"With the economy on a healthy footing in 2002, we see growth being sustained in 2003," Neri said. Key microeconomic reforms in areas such as banking, transport and housing, would spur growth this year, Neri said.
He said the government could target a higher GDP growth of 6 percent this year through microeconomic initiatives, including a nationwide lending program to boost the output of small and medium enterprise, plus infrastructure development particularly in the transport sector.
The industry sector is forecast to grow by 3.4 to 4.4 percent this year, owing to new measures to boost mining, housing, and small and medium-scale enterprises. The agriculture sector is expected to grow by 3 to 4 percent as the government continues to implement measures to mitigate the El Nino phenomenon, Neri said.
Services is seen expanding by 5.2 to 6.2 percent on strong growth in the telecommunication, trade and private services sectors. "Policies to liberalize air transportation and measures to boost housing should further keep services healthy. In banking and finance, we are hopeful that the implementation of the special purpose vehicle law will pave the way for greater financial activity in 2003 and over the medium term," Neri said.
With reports from Donna Z. Pazzibugan and Inquirer wires
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No radioactive danger at Clark, says nuke body
Posted:2:09 AM (Manila Time) | Jan. 31, 2003
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service
CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE -- The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) has allayed fears of radioactive contamination in this former American military base turned economic zone. The agency's officials also gave assurance that radiation levels in the air, soil and water here "do not pose any danger" to the health of workers and residents.
The PNRI, the government agency monitoring environmental radioactivity in the country, made the assurance after Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a Canadian nuclear expert, questioned the methods, standards and findings of a study by the institute in Clark's former ammunition dump in October last year. Bertell, who reviewed the study on the request of the People's Task Force for Bases Cleanup, said authorities did not test the presence of uranium and tritium, and eliminated a check on surface contamination.
On the standards used, she said: "The perceived impact of low levels found should not be the basis for judgment on whether or not people are going to be affected because the set standard is based only on the studies of young, male and healthy Caucasian." Dr. Alumanda de la Rosa, acting PNRI director, said the institute had used "state-of-the-art and sensitive nuclear equipment" in the "comprehensive measurements and evaluation of man-made and naturally-occurring radiation" in the air, soil and water samples collected in Clark since 1998.
De la Rosa said the study, which Bertell reviewed, showed that radiation levels of cesium-137 were within normal background values. "(These) do not pose any risk to public health," she said in a statement here Wednesday.
She said the presence of uranium-238 was tested. "(The) radiation levels are within the background levels of uranium-238 concentrations previously measured by the PNRI in the entire country. These range from 2 to 53 becquerel (unit of radiation) per kilogram," De la Rosa said.
The water system at Clark was "unlikely" contaminated, she said, adding that water samples taken there showed "non-detectable levels of the man-made radioactive elements cesium-137 and tritium." Since 1998, the institute has been using in Clark a mobile car-borne gamma ray spectrometric system in measuring natural radioactivity map and monitoring of gamma radiation, De la Rosa said.
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Gordon Plot
to Destabilize
The Philippine Star 01/21/2003
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT � Members of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) board, led by Chairman Felicito Payumo, have thrown their support for the continued stay of a former Olongapo City councilor who sits as director. This, despite a resolution of the Olongapo City council asking Malaca�ang to replace Mamerto Malabute as the city government�s representative to the SBMA board.
Payumo expressed the board�s position in yesterday�s flag-raising ceremony, where he revealed an alleged plot to "destabilize" the operations of the Subic Bay Freeport. The city council endorsed Malabute as SBMA director in a resolution in July last year. But five months later, the council withdrew its endorsement and declared Malabute a "persona non grata" for supposed loss of confidence.
Payumo argued that removing Malabute at this point "will make a mockery of the fixed-term rule." "So he (Malabute) stays for another three years during the incumbency of the current government unit of Olongapo because they were the ones who made his appointment possible," he said.
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Terror risk still high in RP
The Philippine Star 01/12/2003
Americans are still at high risk of terror attacks in the Philippines, the US State Department warned yesterday in renewing its travel advisory for the country. "In view of a number of security-related incidents and the possibility of future terrorism, kidnappings, and other violence or criminal activity, Americans traveling to or residing in the Philippines are urged to exercise great caution and maintain heightened security awareness," the State Department said in a travel warning.
The State Department updated the travel warnings issued in November and said the latest advisory would stay in place until July. In a statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said the travel advisory issued by the US was "uncalled for." "Travel advisories paint a very unfair picture, where isolated and disparate events are seen as portraying the situation in the entire country," Ople said. "We have consistently objected to travel advisories."
He said it was regrettable that the US, in reviewing its "public announcement" on the Philippines, did not take into account the situation "on the ground � the fact that other countries have revised or altogether eliminated travel advisories in the Philippines; the fact that embassies that had temporarily closed their doors have resumed operations; and the fact that Philippine security and intelligence agencies have scored important victories against terrorists," Ople said. He said the Philippine government will continue to work through diplomatic means to convince all countries which put out advisories on the country to withdraw or amend their travel warnings.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez also said the US travel advisory "has no basis." "There is no basis for that travel advisory. The security measures have not changed," Golez said. Golez assured the public that the security situation in the country remained stable "The security situation is very stable. There is no change whatsoever. I will not elaborate well. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will make the appropriate reaction. Huwag niyo nang kargahan (Do not sensationalize the story)," an irate Golez told Malaca�ang reporters yesterday.
The latest travel warning stated Washington was concerned about the possibility of attacks like the October�s blast in Bali, Indonesia, blamed on Islamist militants which killed nearly 200 people, most of them Australian tourists. It told people to avoid crowded bars, nightclubs and restaurant areas which could be targeted by terror groups. "Terrorist groups do not distinguish between official and civilian targets," the travel advisory stated.
Several bombs have either exploded or been disarmed in Manila in recent months, the warning noted. "Philippine authorities have confirmed they have put into place extra security measures to deter possible terrorist attacks and to protect the public, including resident and traveling foreigners," it added.
"US citizens are warned to avoid all travel to the central, southern and western areas of Mindanao, including Zamboanga City and General Santos City, due to incidents of kidnappings, bombings and other violence and criminal activity," the statement said. "US citizens should also avoid travel to the islands of Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, and Jolo, located in the Sulu archipelago in the extreme southwest of the Philippines," it said.
The travel advisory also cited the threat made by the communist New People�s Army (NPA) guerrillas, after it was tagged by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization. "The NPA, which operates throughout the Philippines, has issued public threats against US citizens and interests in the Philippines," it said. The latest travel advisory was issued a day after Singapore tagged the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) based in southern Philippines as a security threat.
Singapore singled out the MILF, a Muslim group not found on US or UN terrorist lists, as a threat to its security. Singaporean authorities has vowed to intensify its efforts to root out its sympathizers. In all foreign travel advisories issued by foreign governments for the past year, most of them spelled out the so-called high risk areas, particularly citing the presence of Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim rebel groups in some areas of southern Philippines, aside from the possibility of bombing attacks in Metro Manila.
Last Nov. 28, Australia, Canada and the European Union closed their missions in Manila but reopened them after local officials promised stepped-up security measures. The closure of the missions had angered the Philippine government, which said that the alleged threats were exaggerated and that the shutdowns harmed the country�s image.
After reopening their mission, the Canadian embassy revised and "downgraded" its travel advisory on the Philippines telling Canadians that it is now safe to travel to the country. Even as the travel advisory has been downgraded, the Canadian mission has clarified they are still warning their citizens not to go on "high risk areas" in the country, more particularly in some places in Mindanao.
Philippine officials insisted there are no threats as they suspended a police intelligence officer for allegedly leaking a report about a terrorist threat that led to the closure of the embassies. Ople said all three ambassadors expressed their satisfaction with the upgraded security arrangements provided by the Philippine government. Washington has also praised the help of President Arroyo in its anti-terror campaign launched after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. US Special Forces troops spent six months in the southern Philippines earlier last year to train Filipino troops battling the Abu Sayyaf, linked by both governments to the al-Qaeda militant group led by international fugitive Osama bin Laden.
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