Bad weather forces Arroyo to cancel Mindanao visit

President Arroyo has reset to tomorrow her scheduled trip to Mindanao due to bad weather.

Presidential Chief of Staff Rigoberto Tiglao denied speculations that Mrs. Arroyo canceled her trip yesterday because of the reported presence of 10 Indonesian and two Pakistani suicide bombers in Central Mindanao.

"It has nothing to do with terror threats," he said. "It’s just because of the bad weather."

The Armed Forces can secure Mrs. Arroyo when she tours Mindanao, he added.

Cutting by a day her trip to the United States, Mrs. Arroyo landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at 1:57 a.m. Sunday and planned to fly to Mindanao yesterday to check on ongoing security concerns.

Last week, Mrs. Arroyo told chief presidential legal counsel Avelino Cruz and Tiglao she would fly straight to Mindanao upon arriving in Manila after a three-day state visit to the US.

"I’ll be going back home (sooner) than you expected," she said during a tele-press conference from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.

Mrs. Arroyo said she is cutting short her US trip to visit the scene of an intensified offensive against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"I will be going there to inspect the situation, to receive the reports and then to give the instructions (on) how to move on," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said she would stay in Mindanao from June 10 to 17 to "jumpstart" her Mindanao national initiative program known as "Mindanao Natin."

After airport welcome ceremonies Sunday, Mrs. Arroyo went straight to Malacañang and took the day off in anticipation of a full schedule yesterday, including the signing into law of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 and a public report on her US trip.

Mrs. Arroyo was scheduled to leave for Mindanao around noon yesterday and land at Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro City at 12:45 p.m.

She would have proceeded by helicopter to Tubod, Lanao del Norte, where she was set to meet with local officials to discuss military operations against MILF strongholds.

After checking on evacuation centers there, Mrs. Arroyo would have returned to Cagayan de Oro to preside over a command conference with top military and police officials.

Mrs. Arroyo said the offensive against the MILF, accused of harboring perpetrators of bombings and raids that have killed more than 210 people this year, was progressing well.

"I can call it off anytime now, if I want to," she said. "It’s so successful."

Mrs. Arroyo ordered aerial and artillery bombardments against "embedded terrorist cells" blamed for recent bombings on Mindanao shortly before leaving last Saturday for a state visit to the US.

Mrs. Arroyo said she wanted the MILF, which has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland for more than three decades, to renounce terrorism, stop attacks and surrender "the terrorists among them."

Peace talks were suspended earlier this month after the government blamed the rebels for a series of bombings, including a May 10 blast that killed nine people.

The rebels deny harboring terrorists. — Mayen Jaymalin