Roundup: Philippines-U.S. Military Exercises Going on Amid Controversy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 31, 2002

Roundup: Philippines-U.S. Military Exercises Going on Amid Controversy

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The Philippines-U.S. joint military exercises are going on after a brief opening ceremony Thursday morning in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, despite the controversy resulted from the doubts on legality of the operations.

Amid tight security, Philippine military chief General DiomedioVillanueva formally launched the six-month campaign, where up to 660 U.S. troops and 1,200 Philippine soldiers would take part in the operations in the south, aiming to eradicate the Abu Sayyaf bandit group.

Coded Balikatan, the exercises will see armed U.S. troops patrolling together with their Filipino counterparts in the battlefields hunting for the Abu Sayyaf bandits who are still holding an American couple and a Filipino nurse. The Americans areallowed to fight back if attacked by the bandits.

The exercises as a whole will involve the biggest deployments of U.S. troops abroad since the U.S. began its campaign in Afghanistan to wipe out the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden blamed for the September 11 attacks.

Criticism rose from all levels of the Philippine society, saying that the presence of the U.S. military troops in the southern island of Basilan and city of Zamboanga might have violated Philippine laws and relevant bilateral treaties with the U.S.

At the ceremony this morning, where Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Diomedio Villanueva formally opened the six-month, three-phased military exercises, officials of both countries stressed U.S. troops will largely train the Filipinos and will not directly fight the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the operation "brings hope to local residents that they will forever be rid of the terror that has stalked their lives and caused much suffering," stressing that the authorities have taken extra efforts to ensure that the deployment of the U.S. troops did not violate Philippine sovereignty.

Reyes said on Tuesday that the U.S. has spent an initial 20 million U.S. dollars on preparations for the joint exercises, while the Philippine side has spent 3.5 million pesos (about 673,000 dollars).

Lieutenant General Roy Cimatu, chief of AFP Southern Command, the authoritative body to guide the ongoing exercises, denied the deployment of the U.S. troops in Mindanao in the south is a step towards an American takeover of the local military.

Militant groups in some major Philippines cities including Manila and Zamboanga continued to wage demonstrations and strikes to protest the ongoing exercises. Reports here said physical conflicts have occurred between the demonstrators and the police.

Anticipating a rash of complaints resulting from the exercises,the Department of Justice has established "centers for violations of human rights" in Basilan and Zamboanga city, which, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said, would insure human rights violations committed by the visiting U.S. soldiers would not go unchecked.

Perez said earlier that U.S. troops in the exercises are subject to all the Philippine laws unless the government decides to waive its jurisdiction over them.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a rebellious group reportedly with close ties with the Abu Sayyaf group, warned the government on Saturday that the exercises could lead to the collapse of its peace talks with the government.

The 12,500-strong MILF, having been fighting since 1978 for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, resumed peace talks last year with the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The Philippine military had launched mass campaigns hunting down on the Abu Sayyaf bandits in the southern Philippines since June last year. The American couple has been in Abu Sayyaf's custody for nearly nine months.

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