Arroyo defends RP participation in US-led coalition

President Arroyo said yesterday her decision to have the Philippines enlisted in the war against Iraq by the United States-led "coalition of the willing" was the government’s move to preempt local terrorists’ groups in Mindanao from acquiring Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Meanwhile, Lakas Sen. Robert Barbers asked the government to strengthen security measures in Mindanao to ensure that rebel groups sympathetic to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will not be able to conduct sympathy attacks on public installations.

The President, however, said that none of these biological and chemical weapons have yet reached Philippine shores. She vowed that she will not allow such WMDs to find their way into the country.

"We believe that it is to our national interest for us to support this coalition and be part of it because we believe that even the present reality is we can’t prevent weapons of mass destruction (from getting) into the hands of terrorists who seek to sow mayhem in the southern Philippines," she said in her live telephone interview yesterday by Atlanta-based Cable News Network (CNN).

The network sought her out on the decision of the Philippine government to join the "coalition of the willing" by way of political and moral support to the US-led war to dismantle Iraq’s WMDs.

The "coalition of the willing" is composed of 45 countries, including the Philippines, that the US State Department earlier announced had committed their respective expressions of support for the US-led military strikes it launched against Iraq, which started Thursday, after Saddam ignored the 48-hour deadline issued by US President George Bush to peacefully step down from power.

The President reaffirmed her policy declaration to join the "coalition of the willing" to CNN, which she first said after the US began its air strikes in Baghdad.

Asked if the US-led military operations against Iraq could lessen the chances of having more terrorists around the world, Mrs. Arroyo said: "In the sense there will be the least chance of these terrorists being able to access the weapons of mass destruction from their foreign benefactors."

"Terrorism is an international crime now. It is a transnational occurrence. Terrorist cells are linked to one another. A terrorist who has no access to weapons of mass destruction is a terrorist that is much easier to neutralize," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo added that the Philippines’ participation in the coalition is the country’s way of battling terrorism since WMDs that are still at Saddam’s disposal might fall into the hands of local extremist groups.