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By Sam Mediavilla, Reporter
The Philippine government will welcome US counterinsurgency
assistance against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and
the New People’s Army (NPA), Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
said on Thursday.
Ermita hinted at growing US
involvement in the Philippines’ internal security affairs while
discussing the coming joint Balikatan war games in Jolo.
Interviewed after his sendoff of
President Arroyo, who left Thursday morning for Davos, Switzerland,
Ermita said the Chief Executive is glad that both counterterrorism
and counterinsurgency campaigns are “moving forward, very
smoothly.”
Bush call
The executive secretary said the
recent counterterrorism successes by the Armed Forces has pleased
the Americans so much that they have hinted at a possible personal
call of congratulations from US President George W. Bush.
Ermita said the call is expected
during President Arroyo’s Davos visit. He did not say where the
announcement came from.
US Undersecretary of State for
Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes and US Ambassador
to Manila Kristie Kenney were guests Wednesday night at a Malacañang
dinner honoring troops that killed Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy
Janjalani.
Hughes on Thursday insisted
American troops did not play a combat role in the Philippines’
successful raid on Islamic militants in the south.
“We are not engaged in combat
operations,” said Hughes, a key adviser to US President George W.
Bush, as she visited Jolo island a week after Filipino troops
announced they had killed the group’s top two leaders, Khadaffy
Janjalani and Abu Solaiman.
She said the two governments were
“cooperating together to try to weed out the forces that threaten
violence and threaten to terrorize.
“We want to partner with the
people of the Philippines in a way that would help them stop the
terrorists from threatening peace and stability,” Hughes added.
Hughes described the US
involvement in the Philippines as “diplomacy of peace,” adding,
“the things that we are doing are concrete ways to help people
have better lives,” after inspecting school buildings and computer
units provided by the US government.
A team of US military advisers
has been operating in Jolo since last year, when the Philippine
military launched an offensive to flush out suspected key Jemaah
Islamiyah operatives sheltering with the Abu Sayyaf.
Change of heart
Ermita said US aid in the fight
against Abu Sayyaf militants have changed Jolo folks’ view about
the Balikatan, which is scheduled next month in that island.
In 2001, Ermita said, Jolo
residents fiercely opposed Balikatan despite the benefits that went
with the joint exercises.
“But when they started to have
the next balikatan in Cotabato, the Joloanos through the government,
signified their desire to welcome the next Balikatan in Jolo,”
Ermita said.
Malacañang officials have spent
the last two weeks trumpeting the benefits of US military aid and
the war games, which were almost scuttled by a custody row over a US
Marine convicted of raping a Filipino woman.
The midnight transfer of Lance
Corporal Daniel Smith from the Makati City Jail to the US Embassy
sparked outrage and accusations that the Philippine government was
acting like an American puppet.
Ermita said the recent trouncing
of the Abu Sayyaf shows the advantages of RP-US military training,
particularly on the “exchange of intelligence and technological
know-how.”
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