US offers more spy flights

HONOLULU (via PLDT) — American spy satellites may soon be hovering more frequently over Philippine territory if President Arroyo accepts the United States’ offer to field additional flights to beef up intelligence-gathering capability against terrorists.

Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander-in-chief of US forces in the Pacific (CINCPAC), made the offer to the President, who arrived here yesterday for a one-day stopover before flying to Los Cabos, Mexico to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Fargo met with Mrs. Arroyo for 20 minutes in her suite at the Hawaiian Village Hotel.

Bunye, who attended the meeting with Philippine Ambassador to the US Alberto del Rosario and Armed Forces of the Philippines plans and programs chief Commodore Ernesto de Leon, said the President discussed her "wish list" for the AFP, which includes the next batch of second-hand C-130 cargo aircraft and protective vests for troopers.

She may or may not get her wish list soon, but one thing is certain — spy satellite services are hers for the taking if she agrees with Fargo that there is a "need to beef up our intelligence-gathering" capability.

Bunye did not say if Fargo’s offer was an allusion to the supposed intelligence failure of Philippine security authorities to preempt terrorist bombings that rocked Kidapawan and Zamboanga cities in Minda- nao and Metro Manila recently.

An American Green Beret was killed and another US soldier was among those wounded in the Zamboanga bombing last Oct. 2.

Bunye said Fargo cited the offer as part of the security and defense cooperation agreement between the Philippines and the US following the successes noted in the six-month Balikatan 02-1 anti-terrorist training exercises in Basilan and Zamboanga City and the Talon Vision ’02 in Central Luzon which ended the other day.

De Leon, according to Bunye, said the offer should be complemented by supplies of "armored" protective vests and transport lifts such as the C-130 plane "to reduce casualties" for government troopers conducting the anti-terrorism war and counter-insurgency in the hinterlands.

In a related development, Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye reassured Mrs. Arroyo that the US congressional cut on the $30-million military assistance by the US government to the AFP may be restored.

"Senator Inouye told the President that the timing is very appropriate. He thinks there is greater chance to get it back under the supplemental budget submitted by the Bush administration," Bunye said.

The US senator also informed the President that the $65,000 for the health benefits of Filipino World War II veterans in the US has been passed by the House of Representatives and is now pending at the US Senate. In the meantime, a donation of used medical equipment would be given to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City.

Waging a war on terror and poverty

As the US and the Philippines move side by side in the war against terrorism, Mrs. Arroyo yesterday bared her intention to present to the APEC assembly the Philippine experience in conducting simultaneously its war against terrorism alongside the battle against poverty.

Speaking before the Filipino community in Honolulu, she stressed that terrorism is a borderless crime and therefore requires transnational response by bodies like the APEC in addressing its roots in poverty.

"The 21st century war against terrorism is a new kind of war that requires a new kind of peace. Part of this new peace process is reconciling the concerns of developing countries with the perspective of developing countries," she said.

The President admitted that she, like Russian President Vladimir Putin who aborted his APEC Summit participation this year due to a hostage-taking incident in Moscow by Chechen rebels, almost canceled her foreign trips.

"However, the Lord solved my dilemma because a few days later, the suspects were arrested," she explained, referring to the capture last Tuesday of five suspects in two separate bombings in Zamboanga’s shopping district and the one in Fort Pilar Shrine last Sunday.

"As far as the Philippines is concerned," she stressed "and because we have a long history of dealing with terrorists in Southwest Philippines, we have learned so much and we are better prepared than many countries in dealing with this threat."

Toward this end, she said, the Philippines will host the World Tourism Organization (WTO) when it holds an anti-terrorist convention.

"We in the National Security Council are organizing a regional anti-terrorists conference. So we will put these two together," she ends.