‘MLSA security fears overblown’

US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone brushed off yesterday fears that a new RP-US security pact could bring the country into conflict with Iraq, saying such fears were overblown.

He said the new agreement was merely a logistics-sharing accord and would not result in US bases being set up in the Philippines once again.

"We don’t want bases, we don’t need them and the MLSA (Mutual Logistics Support Agreement) has nothing to do with bases," Ricciardone told reporters after meeting with President Arroyo at Malacañang yesterday.

The MLSA, signed last Thursday, commits the Phi-lippine and US militaries to exchange fuel, supplies and non-lethal equipment. It has been criticized by leftist groups, some legislators and Vice President Teofisto Guingona.

Guingona, who was eased out of Mrs. Arroyo’s Cabinet earlier this year for opposing closer defense ties with the United States, has cited the vague provisions in the accord which he says might force the Philippines to join any US-led war with Iraq.

But Ricciardone said it was a "huge stretch of the imagination to make any connection whatsoever between the MLSA and being drawn into a war."

"I simply don’t have that kind of imagination. I don’t see the connection," he added.

Some legislators have said the agreement needs to be ratified by Senate but Ricciardone said such matters were not even raised to the cabinet, commenting "it’s just an accounting job being done by a responsible supply officer."

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, meanwhile, said the agreement would boost the capabilities of the poorly-equipped Philippine military, "because now we will have immediate access to whatever materials are going to be part of the MLSA."

He said leftist groups were against the accord because they were "sympathizers" of the communist guerrillas and were therefore opposed to anything that would strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Golez also defended the signing of the accord without any approval from Congress, saying making it subject to congressional approval would be "encroaching on executive functions."

He said the agreement could be amended if necessary but that did not mean the government would carry out any recommendations of the MLSA critics.

Mrs. Arroyo was one of the first leaders to express support for the US-led war on terror in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in America.

Earlier this year, US troops took part in six months of joint operations in the southern Philippines to advise local troops hunting the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim kidnapping group allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. — AFP, Marichu Villanueva