US to build $3-M airport in Sulu

MANILA, Philippines – The US government is building airports in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi costing $3 million each to encourage commerce and development in the two provinces.

US Ambassador Kristie Kenney told The STAR the other night that construction would start this year as scheduled despite the kidnapping of ABS-CBN news anchor Ces Drilon, her two cameramen and a Mindanao professor.

Jon Lindborg, mission director of the US Agency for International Development, also said the USAID is not suspending any of its programs in Sulu or other parts of Mindanao in the wake of the kidnapping.

Drilon, cameraman Jimmy Veneracion and professor Octavio Dinampo of the Mindanao State University-Sulu were freed at past 11 p.m. Tuesday by their Abu Sayyaf captors. Another cameraman, Angelo Valderama, was freed days earlier.

Washington has poured development aid into conflict areas in Mindanao and has stationed troops in Zamboanga City, most of them belonging to the Special Forces. The troops conduct regular civic and medical missions in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. They also provide training and intelligence assistance to Philippine troops.

Abu Sayyaf (“Bearer of the Sword”) is believed to have linked up with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network loosely linked to al-Qaeda. Two JI bomb makers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, are being hunted down in Mindanao for the deadly nightclub attacks that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia in 2002.

The Bush administration considers Mindanao as one of the fronts in the global war on terror.

Kenney is a regular visitor to Sulu, where US troops and USAID personnel have installed artesian wells and helped build roads, bridges and school buildings equipped with Internet-ready computers.

A joint military operation of Philippine and US troops in Basilan in 2002 drove away the Abu Sayyaf from its jungle strongholds. But the group once again made its presence felt in the province last year when it ambushed and decapitated Philippine Marines looking for a kidnapped Italian priest.