RP to push for creation of ASEAN anti-terrorist front

President Arroyo said yesterday she would push for the creation of a regional anti-terrorist front at the annual meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in November.

The Philippines put forward the idea as Washington called for a global war against terrorists suspected to be behind the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last Sept. 11

Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona, has "already started to sound out the other two" on setting up a regional anti-terrorism coalition, Mrs. Arroyo said, referring to Indonesia and Malaysia.

"In the course of sounding out, there was an idea that arose that it might even graduate into a major agenda item in the next ASEAN summit," the President told a news conference.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders next meet in Brunei on Nov. 5-6. Their grouping also includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Kuala Lumpur said Wednesday it was awaiting further details on the proposal, noting that nothing official had been transmitted by Manila.

The neighbors face growing rebellions by Muslim separatists believed to be slowly linking up with each other.

The urgency of setting up a coalition was underscored by Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohammad last month when he warned that a Malaysian-based group of Islamic radicals had forged links with Philippine and Indonesian separatists.

Retired Gen. Eduardo Ermita, a security adviser to Mrs. Arroyo, has also said that Indonesian authorities have alerted Manila to firearms being smuggled by Filipino rebels to Islamic separatists in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

"In all probability" the guns could have been provided by the Abu Sayyaf group, a small group of self-styled Islamic freedom fighters holding hostage 18 US and Filipino hostages in the South, he said.

Philippine officials say the Abu Sayyaf once received aid from Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, wanted by the US dead or alive for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Manila backs US President George W. Bush’s call for a global war against terrorists, with Mrs. Arroyo earlier offering the use of the country’s airports for refueling or transshipment points for US forces.

Military sources said three US F-18 fighter jets from the US base in Okinawa, Japan landed Thursday at the Mactan International Airport in central Cebu City for refueling. They stayed only 30 minutes before leaving on an unspecified mission.