RP, Australia eye pact on security

The Philippines and Australia are to sign this week a security cooperation agreement to jointly combat terrorism and allow joint military training exercises, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople, who left Saturday for Canberra, will sign the agreement with his counterpart Alexander Downer tomorrow, the DFA said in a statement.

Under the agreement, the neighbors will boost cooperation in intelligence gathering, rescue operations and exchange of information, among other things.

The pact would also allow joint military training exercises, although officials
here say Manila balked at an Australian proposal to widen the scope to include "joint military operations."

The Philippine Constitution forbids foreign troops from fighting on its soil.

Both Australia and the Philippines have been victims of international terrorism. Eighty-eight of the nearly 200 people killed Oct. 12 in a double carbombing on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali were Australian nationals.

In the same month, a spate of bombings blamed on Islamic militants hit the Philippines, killing more than 20 people in Manila and in the Zamboanga City. One of the victims in the bombing in Malagutay district in Zamboanga on Oct. 2 was an American soldier.

Intelligence officials have also said that Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines have direct links with the regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah blamed for the Bali attacks.

JI has been linked to the al-Qaeda network, responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in Washington and New York that left at least 3,000 people dead. — AFP, Aurea Calica