Local News 3

Mango's Local News and Info

Archive 3

July 2001 - November 2001

Note: These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Management, Staff and Employees of Mango's.

US Navy ship docks at Subic
Posted: 1:50 AM (Manila Time) | November 11, 2001
By Ansbert Joaquin
Inquirer News Service

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT ZONE -- A dock landing ship of the United States Navy docked here "for rest and recreation" on Saturday, fueling rumors that the visit is part of the ongoing US-led global fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. But USS Germantown commanding officer, Bradley Martin, assured reporters here that the rumors surrounding the visit are just plain rumors. The visit nonetheless drew mixed reactions from the city's businessmen and non-government organizations.

Martin said the visit is part of the ongoing US Pacific Command engagement "with our friends in the region." "We are here for a visit and for some rest and recreation following our humanitarian assistance operation in East Timor," he said. The 609-foot vessel and its 700-member personnel are tasked to transport, launch and support landing craft and helicopters carrying US Marines during amphibious operations against hostile shores. Its manpower includes 307 Navy personnel and 456 US Marines.

It carries with it the new Landing Craft Air Cushion, an assault hovercraft with the ability to exceed 40 knots while carrying a 60-ton payload. This allows the craft to make amphibious assaults against a wide range of beaches. USS Germantown played a significant role during the Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 1990s. Martin declined to answer repeated queries from reporters on where the US dock landing ship will proceed after its visit to Subic.

Foreign group arrives as US advisers are awaited
Posted: 8:54 PM (Manila Time) | October 25, 2001
By INQ7.net with Agence France-Presse

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines—A military C-130 airplane arrived here late Thursday with a group of Caucasians but officials declined to say whether they were among the American counter-terrorism experts expected to help the Philippines fight a Muslim kidnap gang linked to Osama bin Laden. The group was whisked to the military's southern command in an army bus, escorted by a military convoy, an Agence France-Presse photographer said.

Officials said earlier on Thursday that a group of 19 US counter-terrorism experts are heading to this southern city to join a four-man advance party who arrived Tuesday. On Thursday, pursuing government forces clashed with the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan's Tuburan town, killing three rebels, military Southern Command chief Lieutenant General Roy Cimatu said. He said troops recovered combat rations from the rebels, and the gunbattle was continuing and was expected "to last long."

More US military advisers head to the Philippines
Posted: 4:11 PM (Manila Time) | October 25, 2001
By Agence France-Presse

ZAMBOANGA – Another 19 US counter-terrorism experts are heading to this southern city to help the Philippines fight the Abu Sayyaf linked Osama bin Laden, officials said Thursday. The team, expected before the end of the week, would join a four-man advance party of four who arrived here Tuesday, military southern command chief Lieutenant General Roy Cimatu said.

"They will be here, we will be giving them some military briefing regarding our concept of operations," against the Abu Sayyaf, Cimatu told reporters. The Abu Sayyaf is holding an American missionary couple and nine Filipino captives in Basilan island, while another shadowy group of former Muslim guerrillas called the Pentagon, is also holding Italian missionary Giuseppe Pierantoni elsewhere in the south.

After meetings with intelligence and military officials here, the US experts are to fly to Basilan to check on the operations of some 5,000 Filipino troops hunting down the elusive band of rebels. However, officials had emphasized the counter-terrorism experts would not be joining combat operations.

Cimatu said the US experts "will be assessing our capabilities in terms of equipment and communications, the things we are doing and what we are using in the operation." They would also check on the progress of a Philippine "light reaction company", an elite unit the Americans had earlier trained and which is now operating in Basilan.

If the US experts assess the unit as "effective", they may train additional units and provide funding, Cimatu said. The Abu Sayyaf's firepower has been degraded following clashes that left at least 60 rebels dead this month alone, he said. "It is already at the end game, meaning as far as the military component of this operation is concerned, we are almost there," Cimatu said.

He said there was a "very strong probability" that soldiers would rescue the remaining captives "anytime today or tomorrow." Officials at the military headquarters in Manila said a firefight had erupted between soldiers and the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan's Tuburan town on Thursday, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Sex workers rush to Angeles
Posted:10:26 PM (Manila Time) | October 21, 2001
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service

ANGELES CITY -- As if anticipating a big party, commercial sex workers from Metro Manila and Olongapo City rushed to Fields Avenue, this city’s red light district, since Wednesday. They patiently waited up to Saturday night and appeared to be in for more disappointment. The guests--at least 160 US Marines--did not arrive. Not one of the six F-18 Hornets and six C-130 cargo planes, expected to land at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in nearby Clark on Wednesday, arrived.

“I wasted time here—make-up, dress, cigarettes and all,” said one woman in her 20s, who said she was “imported” from a flashy joint in Quezon City. She was interviewed Friday night in one of the newest bars on Fields, a 2-km stretch of some 200 nightclubs, massage parlors, sauna baths, karaoke bars, Internet cafés, restaurant and hotels. She said pimps brought their young wards here to get a chance to contract deals with American GIs who might want to have a “good time” during the brief stopover. “We’re just trying out our luck. You know, they pay in dollars,” she said before she mixed with the crowd of old Caucasian-looking men dancing sluggishly on the darkly lit dance floor.

At press time, officials of the League of Angeles City Entertainers and Managers cannot be reached to officially confirm reports of the bar girls’ rush to Fields. However, commercial photographers, flower and cigarette vendors and other regular habitués of Fields have observed their increasing presence. “Dumami nga (They turned out to be many),” said one of the photographers who, by 1 a.m. Saturday, had visited over 20 bars. Business wasn’t also too rosy for the Holiday Inn-Clark Field, where the US contingent was expected to stay on Wednesday.

The US Embassy liaison staff canceled the hotel reservations that were renewed Thursday only to be canceled again, Holiday Inn sources said. A typhoon over Japan, from where the troops were reportedly coming from, delayed the flights, said Angelo Lopez, Clark Development Corp. public affairs chief. US Embassy press attaché Karen Kelly only confirmed the scheduled arrival on Wednesday but could not say the cause of the delay or if the troops were part of American special forces to be detailed on the ground in counter-terrorist offensives in Afghanistan.

If they do come, they shall be the first US contingent to use Clark as pit stops since the former huge American military base was committed by the Macapagal administration for the US-led International Counter-Terrorist Coalition. Philippine Air Force officials were themselves bothered a bit. Journalists frequently inquired on the US troops’ expected time of arrival that since Wednesday had been canceled thrice, according to Maj. Allan Ballesteros, public affairs chief of the Air Force City based in Clark. Journalists, from local and international news organizations, were themselves tired from the waiting.

Bad weather appeared to be really the cause of the delay. On Saturday, a P-3 Orion aircraft also canceled its flight to the Subic Bay International Airport inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales due to bad weather, according to a source at the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACom). The aircraft, a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft of the US Navy, comes thrice a year to do oceanographic surveys in international waters. The VFACom source said the surveys had nothing to do with the offensives in Afghanistan. “None at all,” the source said.

But even before the US troops arrived, anti-war activists got news of their arrival. The Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya, for instance, staged a torch parade from Angeles City to Clark’s main gate urging Clark officials to stop the entry of nuclear weapons and US troops at the 43,000-hectare special economic zone. Anti-riot policemen estimated the protesters to be between 80 and 120.

Travel bans imperil 50,000 tourism jobs
Posted:10:59 PM (Manila Time) | October 25, 2001
By Jerome Aning
Inquirer News Service

SOME 50,000 jobs in the local tourism industry will be lost if the United States, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore do not lift their advisories telling their citizens not to travel to the country, the Federation of Tourism Industries in the Philippines (FTIP) warned Thursday.

Alejandra Clemente, FTIP president, said many tourism-related businesses would close shop next year unless the travel advisories were lifted. Sad-faced owners and managers of hotels, airlines, travel and tour agencies belonging to the FTIP met at the Hotel Pan Pacific in Manila to discuss the effects of the Travel Advisory Level 2 imposed by the Japanese government on Oct. 8. They are closing their shops this afternoon to picket the Japanese Embassy in Pasay City to ask Tokyo to recall its travel advisory.

Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon, keynote speaker in the FTIP meeting, described the travel advisory as unreasonable, unfriendly, and unwise. He shared the observation of some Japanese participants in the meeting that the advisory was the work of bureaucrats.

Gordon said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had already issued a diplomatic note regarding the matter. He said a diplomatic protest should be issued if Tokyo refused to heed the appeal for the recall of its travel advisory.

Clemente said the tourism industry in the country was not only hurting but reaching crisis proportions. Tourist arrivals from Japan have dropped 70 to 75 percent because of the advisory, according to Clemente. This year, the number of Japanese tourists was earlier estimated at 385,000, about 20 percent of the total tourist arrivals. If each Japanese visitor spends 100 dollars a day and stays an average of 2.5 days, 96.3 million dollars or 4.9 billion pesos in revenues will be generated.

Marilen Sandejas-Yaptangco of the Baron Travel Corp. said the Philippines would be excluded from brochures issued by Japanese wholesale travel agencies for the spring-summer (April to September) travel season if the travel ban was not lifted by the next month. Yaptangco said tour operators would have to let go of as much as 70 percent of their personnel. All of us will lose not only revenues and talented manpower, she said. We will lose a culture -- a culture of tourism.

Felix Cruz, president of the Board of Airline Representatives, said Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights to Japan had dropped from 23 to 17 a month. Cruz, PALs vice president for marketing support, said the reduction of flights from Cebu to Tokyo and Osaka would cost PAL about 3.2 million pesos a month.

Gordon and FTIP members said it was unfair that the Philippines was included in Japan's list of Level 2 countries, such as Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Uzbekistan and Iran. If the Japanese government was really concerned for its citizens, why did it not issue a travel advisory for the United States, especially in Washington D.C. and New York, because of the anthrax scare? Gordon asked.

US military advisers arrive to train troops in Mindanao
Posted: 0:08 AM (Manila Time) | October 18, 2001
Inquirer News Service

A FIRST batch of American anti-terrorism experts has arrived in Mindanao to help train the military deal with the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, the United States embassy in Manila said Wednesday. US embassy charge d' affaires Robert Fitts said more "consultants" would arrive before the end of the month. He said they will not be armed and will not join combat operations.

"They are not combat troops, just consultants who will give additional training," Fitts said on local television. "We will have commanders down south strategizing against terrorists in the jungles in about two weeks." "There are some who have arrived earlier and they are in (the military's) Southern Command" in Zamboanga City, he added.

Admiral Dennis Blair, US Pacific Forces commander, is also due in Manila in early November to meet with defense officials. Fitts did not disclose the number of American military advisers arriving in the country, but National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said last week that "we expect a relatively sizeable delegation" to include "basically Army officials, maybe numbering more than two dozens."

Golez said the Americans would extend not only "additional training" but also special equipment and probably share "intelligence information". US-trained Scout Rangers of the Light Reaction Company had earlier been sent to Basilan to rescue US Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham who are being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf Muslim bandit group.

Besides the Burnhams, the Abu Sayyaf is currently holding nine Filipinos hostages on Basilan island-the number down from 16 after some escaped and were rescued during a major offensive by government forces in recent weeks. Last June, the bandit group beheaded American hostage Guillermo Sobero whom the group abducted along with the Burnhams and 17 Filipinos, from an island resort in Palawan on May 27.

Since the crisis began, the bandits have murdered 16 Filipino hostages. The Abu Sayyaf has threatened to kill the Burnhams unless advancing government troops withdraw, but President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has rejected their demand and vowed to crush them. Military officials said the Abu Sayyaf was set up in the early 1990s with seed money from the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Colonel Hermogenes Esperon, commander of the Task Group Thunder, said efforts had been doubled to rescue the remaining hostages. Esperon said members of the Light Reaction Company, who are issued night vision equipment, had been trained directly by the US military, particularly in the safe rescue of hostages.

"They are what we call the night stalkers. It's a special unit with long-range patrol capabilities," he said. Colonel Francisco Gudani, deputy commander of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said the Abu Sayyaf had split into smaller groups and divided the hostages, apparently in a bid to facilitate movement.

"They have splintered into small groups. They would like to avoid the heavy confrontations or encounters," Gudani said. "They felt the pressure of conventional warfare." With the kidnap group's latest change of strategy, Gudani said the military would have a harder time trying to locate them in the Basilan jungles.

Since encounters between the bandit group and government troops were renewed on Monday, more than 30 Abu Sayyaf members have been killed and high-powered firearms have been recovered, Gudani said. He said the military operations were taking a toll on the Abu Sayyaf, which could have prompted the group to call for a ceasefire.

However, Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani has slipped out of Basilan, reportedly in the company of two Yemeni nationals, to escape the intensified military operations, Gudani said. "We have intelligence reports that Janjalani has left Basilan for fear of his life," Gudani told reporters.

A former hostage, Joel Guillo of Lamitan town, confirmed the military report. He talked with Janjalani shortly before Janjalani left with the two Arabs on Oct. 5. "The last I heard of him after that was when he informed (Abu) Sabaya that the boat (he was in) had sunk as they neared the city," Guillo said. He said he had no idea to which city Janjalani was referring.

Gudani said Janjalani had not returned to Basilan and suspected that he had abandoned the kidnap group. Southern Command chief Lieutenant General Roy Cimatu believes Janjalani will soon fall into the hands of the military. He said the bandit leader may have left Basilan but he is still in Mindanao. Cimatu said intelligence reports indicated that lower-ranking Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Janjalani's spokesperson and lieutenant Abu Sabaya, were still in the area being scoured by the Army on the outskirts of the island's capital, Isabela.

A FIRST STEP: Court orders arrest of Imelda Marcos
Posted: 11:17 PM (Manila Time) | October 16, 2001
By Volt Contreras and Donna S. Cueto
Inquirer News Service

FIFTEEN years after falling from power, former first lady Imelda Marcos was ordered arrested on Tuesday by the Sandiganbayan on four graft charges stemming from her family's funneling of ill-gotten wealth to Swiss banks. The criminal cases were filed in 1995. But government prosecutors submitted the evidence only last week.

But the 72-year-old widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos did not land in jail as she posted a bail of 120,000 pesos (2,310 dollars). The Sandiganbayan 4th Division issued a warrant for her arrest shortly before noon Tuesday. With four lawyers in tow, she showed up to post bail at around 4:30 p.m. Sporting a blazer, long pants, shoes and a hand bag--all blue, Ms Marcos was also escorted by uniformed bodyguards and female aides.

The court took her fingerprints but no mug shots. Ms Marcos was allowed to submit 2 x 2 pictures. Ms Marcos is accused of setting up bogus foundations when she was minister of human settlements in the 1980s to hide millions of alleged stolen wealth in Swiss banks. Criminal cases 22867 to 22870 refer to the establishment of three Swiss dummy foundations--the Vibur, Aguamina, Avertin--and the Banque Paribas accounts.

Information filed with the Sandiganbayan said more than 230 million dollars (about 11.5 billion pesos) in alleged ill-gotten wealth had been deposited in the Swiss bank accounts controlled by the foundations. As of March 1986, the Swiss funds were estimated at 356 million dollars (about 17.8 billion pesos) when these were frozen. The funds, now in an escrow account, have grown to 659 million dollars (about 32.95 billion pesos).

Ms Marcos remained defiant. She dismissed the charges "as pure and simple harassment" and urged the government to better devote its meager resources to helping the poor. But Akbayan Rep. Loretta Rosales welcomed the arrest order issued against Ms Marcos, saying that it was about time the courts act on the many pending cases against the former first lady.

Sandiganbayan records showed that she has had a total of 35 civil and 28 criminal cases. The former first lady was convicted in two criminal cases in 1993 though the guilty verdicts were reversed by the Supreme Court in 1998. She has also won two acquittals and the dismissal of eight of her cases. Rosales noted that the former first lady had failed to compensate human rights victims who suffered during the Marcos regime.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) said the issuance of the arrest warrant against Ms Marcos for the four graft cases filed in 1995 was an "important first step" in pinning the Marcoses on corruption. "It (the issuance of the arrest warrant) says that a person who started amassing ill-gotten wealth in 1967 cannot get away with it even by year 2001," PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza said. He said the PCGG was ready to go to trial in these graft cases. "We are confident of the evidence we have," Carranza told reporters.

U.S. sending 'anti-terror team' to Manila
October 11, 2001 Posted: 8:06 AM EDT (1206 GMT)

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- The Philippine government says the United States is sending a "sizeable" military delegation to Manila as part of efforts to crack down on militant groups linked to terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden. Philippine National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the U.S. delegation, numbering more than a dozen, will provide training and equipment to Philippine troops in their operations against the Abu Sayyaf group. Golez said the task of the American troops shows "heightened cooperation between the Philippines and the United States". However, he stressed that this cooperation is limited to providing Philippine troops with special equipment to fight the Abu Sayyaf, as well as training and sharing of intelligence information.

Golez refused to say how long the U.S. troops would stay in Manila. This is not the first time the United States has sent security agents to the Philippines. Last year, FBI agents were sent to the Philippines to investigate the abduction of American hostage Jeffrey Schilling. Schilling, a Muslim convert, was detained by the Abu Sayyaf after he reportedly volunteered to enter the group's hideout. He was eventually rescued by Philippine troops during a military operation against the group.

No participation

Golez also rejected speculation that American troops would participate in a military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, or that United States is looking at the Southern Philippines, the base of the Abu Sayyaf, for future military action. "There is no possibility that the Americans will be conducting … military action, using their own troops. This is impossible under the Philippine constitution," Golez said.

He added that as part of stepped up security against extremist attacks, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has approved the posting of air marshals on domestic commercial flights. The United States has listed the Abu Sayyaf as among foreign groups supporting bin Laden, whom it blames for the September 11 air attacks on New York and Washington.

The Abu Sayyaf is the smallest and most extremist of a number of militant groups fighting for an independent Islamic state in the Southern Philippines. The group was founded by Ustadz Abdurajack Janjalani who fought as a mujahideen in Afghanistan and is believed to have close links with Bin Laden.

The group gained international notoriety for a series of tourist kidnappings demanding millions of dollars in ransom in return. At present, the group is still holding American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and 16 Filipinos in the jungles of the southern island of Basilan. The Burnhams were kidnapped last May 27 along with another American Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipinos from a resort on the island of Palawan, south of Manila.

The group claimed in July to have beheaded Sobero but that report has not been confirmed.

US to send counter-terrorist advisers to Philippines soon
Posted: 0:02 AM (Manila Time) | October 11, 2001
By Inquirer News Service and Agence France-Presse

A "SIZEABLE" team of US military advisers is expected to fly to the Philippines shortly to help local troops address the threat of international terrorism, a senior aide to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Wednesday. The team, to be headed by a general, should arrive in a few weeks, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told reporters. "We expect a relatively sizeable delegation" to include "basically army officials, maybe numbering more than two dozens," he said.

Golez dismissed a New York Times report on Tuesday that Washington was likely to initiate "future covert and overt military actions" against "terrorists tied to the Osama bin Laden network and based in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia." US-led forces are mounting air strikes in Afghanistan to destroy Bin Laden training camps and the military capability of the Saudi-born militant's Taliban hosts. Washington holds bin Laden responsible for last month's deadly terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Golez said the US team would discuss with Filipino security officials "possibilities where we can help each other with respect to planning, training and adjusting our program addressed to the local (aspects of) international terrorist problems." US President George W. Bush has sought a global freeze on assets belonging to the Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine Muslim rebel outfit that is believed to have links with bin Laden.

Philippine military officials say the Abu Sayyaf received material and financial aid as well as training from Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network until 1995, and that the two groups have maintained contact since then. "We see heightened cooperation between the Philippines and the United States by way of providing to us special equipment to fight the Abu Sayyaf, training and sharing of intelligence information," Golez said.

He stressed that the US military advisers were not being assigned to find and destroy the Abu Sayyaf, which holds 17 hostages including an American couple in the southern Philippine island of Basilan. "Any effort that would target these terrorist groups, particularly the Abu Sayyaf, would involve exclusively Filipino troops," Golez said. "There is no possibility that the Americans could be conducting covert or overt military action using their own troops because this is impossible under the Philippine Constitution." Instead, "the Americans shall help by way of extending to us additional special equipment, additional training and probably a sharing of intelligence information."

Golez said the team would be involved in a "comprehensive evaluation of the situation with respect to the Abu Sayyaf. And then we can plan together as well as make an evaluation on what kind of equipment would be needed." He said the US military has already trained a "light reaction company" of Philippine troops that was later deployed in Basilan. Ms Macapagal has allowed US forces to overfly Philippine airspace and use airports as transit points in support of the campaign against those responsible for last month's terrorist attacks in the US. She has also offered combat troops if required.

Officials said meanwhile that Ms Macapagal is scheduled to make a working visit to the United States on Nov. 18-20 for talks with Bush. Golez also announced that Arroyo had ordered armed sky marshals to patrol domestic flights to deter terrorist attacks. "The President recently approved the deployment of air marshals on board domestic flights, initially on board Airbus-300 domestic flights," he said. "Later on, this will cover all domestic flights," and eventually international flights involving Filipino carriers. The national security adviser gave no timetable, saying Manila still had to train additional air marshals as well as acquire "additional arms and ammunition" for the operation.

Hundreds of Abu Sayyaf members, who have resorted to kidnapping, bombing and other terroristic acts, have been fighting Army soldiers, policemen and militiamen on the outskirts of Lantawan town and Isabela City in Basilan since Sunday. At least 21 bandits have died and an equal number have been wounded, according to military reports. Seventeen soldiers have also been wounded.

The Armed Forces has deployed a company of the elite Counter-Terrorist Force (CTF) to augment troops pursuing Abu Sayyaf bandits at the boundary of Lantawan town and Isabela City in Basilan. The CTF enters the theater of military operations as the ghost of the military debacle in Lamitan town in June continues to haunt the military establishment.

"The lessons of Lamitan are clear in the minds of our commanders in Basilan," said Armed Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan. On June 1, Abu Sayyaf members slipped through a cordon laid by Army soldiers around a hospital and a church at the Lamitan town proper. This brought about allegations that top military officers were conniving with the bandit group.

Soldiers of the Army's First Scout Ranger Battalion and the 10th Infantry Battalion clashed with the Abu Sayyaf's main force on Sunday, killing at least 21 bandits. But inclement weather and the difficult terrain, military officials said, have allowed the bandits to break contact and divide into small groups, resulting in a lull in the fighting. Adan said the military "achieved a victory" on Sunday, noting that it was considered a success "if you are able to hit a big group and break it apart."

The CTF troops were flown in from Zamboanga City, headquarters of the military's Southern Command. They will join members of the First Scout Ranger Battalion, the 10th IB and the 11th IB in pursuit operations. Government troops are pressing on, and with the stream of intelligence reports being received, another "major engagement" is expected soon, according to Adan. Adan, however, pointed out that the area of operations was 10 square kilometers, big enough for the bandits to disappear and mix with the civilian population.

In Isabela, Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu said some 7,000 soldiers were now closing in on the main Abu Sayyaf group in Lantawan. "They are now maneuvering the terrain. They have been positioned and we will not allow them to escape this time," he said. Cimatu also said government troops were tracking down the group led by Khaddafy Janjalani and Isnilon Hapilon.

Col. Roland Detabali, Southcom chief for operations, said soldiers were also scouring Barangay Bulanza in Lantawan, a known stronghold of Hapilon. "Tuloy-tuloy na ito, di namin sila pakakawalan (This will go on, we will not let them go)," Detabali said. Brig. Gen. Nelson Eslao, chief of the Third Air Division, said two OV-10 planes, three MG-520 attack helicopters and a Huey helicopter were on standby at the Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City, which can be used to support the ground troops.

One of the lessons of the Lamitan debacle, according to an Army fact-finding report, was the immediate employment of all available resources in a major engagement in order to crush the Abu Sayyaf. The military has yet to redeem itself from this episode. "Our credibility has never been so low," said a ranking military official who asked not to be named.

"During Edsa II and III (People Power revolts), we were high up there but it all came crashing down with Lamitan," the officer said. "No military operation is perfect," Adan said. "There will be flaws and weaknesses but what counts is the overall result."

Cimatu said the lull "might explode anytime" as the gunmen's movements have not escaped military intelligence. "The lull is very dangerous," he said. "The lull can be misleading but they (rebels) are being watched.'' Cimatu refused to give more details on the new location of the bandit group, which he only described as "advantageous to government troops." "There might be contact anytime soon as the weather improves," the South Command chief said.

Military authorities have discovered that most of the Abu Sayyaf's guns are US-made. Brig. Gen. Glicerio Sua, chief of the Army's First Tabak Division, said one of the firearms recovered from the bandit group was the "latest model" of a US-made M60-E3 machine gun. "It can be used by one person. The old model requires support from another person," Sua said.

Cimatu said such model was very difficult to transport from foreign countries to the Philippines. "Maybe this was smuggled in through the backdoor." "The Armed Forces of the Philippines does not have this type of model," he said.

US briefs RP on plans for using Subic, Clark
Posted: 0:15 AM (Manila Time) | September 28, 2001
Inquirer News Service

ADM. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the US Pacific Fleet, has outlined American military plans for using Subic and Clark in the global war against terrorism, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez disclosed Thursday. Fargo gave him a "general briefing on what to expect in the coming weeks and months," which, Golez said, showed "the keen attention being given by the US to our facilities." He quoted Fargo as saying that the former US military bases at Subic in Zambales and Clark in Pampanga would be used "only for transit and transshipment of materials and personnel."

He said they would be used as well for refueling the Pacific Fleet from Honolulu, Guam or the US West Coast to the US base in Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean that was used as US staging ground during the 1991 Gulf War. Senior military officers who were with Fargo briefed him on "the kind of military assets especially aircraft expected to enter Philippine air space in the coming days, as well as those expected to use … Subic and Clark and other facilities," Golez said. "We're not talking here of aircraft that will go from the Philippines direct to the point of conflict. It's too long a distance," he said. But Golez did not specify the exact type and number of US aircraft that would be involved.

"We have to respect the operational security aspects of this matter," Golez said, adding that the aircraft were not due in the "immediate following days." He quoted Fargo as saying that "we should expect more of the diplomatic offensive as well as the financial offensive that we saw in the past few days."

Golez expressed confidence that the materials that would pass through Subic and Clark would not include nuclear weapons, despite the US policy of neither confirming nor denying presence of the weapons in its carriers. "The US is aware of our constitutional requirements here, and we know it will comply," he said. The Philippines and other supporters of the US-led International Counter-Terrorism Coalition (ICTC) can expect a "long-drawn campaign" that will last "more than a year, possibly two," Golez said.

He said Fargo told him that this was in view of the fact that "the military situation is very different from any campaign participated in by US forces in modern times." Fargo, the highest-ranking US Navy officer in the Pacific, liked what he saw when he visited the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, which until the US pullout in November 1991 was deemed "America's largest and most comprehensive support available to the US Navy in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean area."

Golez confirmed the INQUIRER story that Fargo arrived on Tuesday to inspect the area and inform him of the use by the ICTC of Subic, Clark and other facilities. "Admiral Fargo inspected the Subic facilities and said he was impressed by what he saw," Golez said at a news briefing held in Malacañang Thursday, two days after the unannounced visit took place.

But Roman Polintan, chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Central Luzon, said the militant group would hold simultaneous protest rallies to meet the arrival of US troops at Subic, Clark and the Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu. Primo Amparo, spokesperson of the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya, warned of big demonstrations demanding that the administration of President Macapagal-Arroyo withdraw its commitment to the "US-led war of aggression." The protests, according to Polintan and Amparo, will start Friday when the President visits Clark to attend a ceremony renaming the international airport there after her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal. The two activist leaders said Bayan and KPD chapters in Central Luzon and the Visayas would be mobilized for the protest actions.

No consultation

Leaders of business groups in the Clark Special Economic Zone also expressed apprehension over the ICTC's planned use of the former US bases. Lito Mercado, acting president of the Clark Investors and Locators Association (Cila), said this would "undermine the business viability" of what is now one of the country's two biggest industrial havens. Mercado said the plan was made without prior consultation with business communities.

The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement, speaking for Clark-based investors and those in Angeles City and Mabalacat town, raised concern for the business sector. It also said that while the use of Clark could produce benefits, civilian communities might be faced with threats. Karen Kelly, US Embassy press attaché, told the INQUIRER Thursday that Fargo's Tuesday visit to Subic was "no secret." She said it was to thank officials of the Macapagal administration for their "support to the global efforts to combat terrorism" and to "observe the developments" at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

The President expressed "all-out" support for the US government immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. On Wednesday, she announced her administration's "14 pillars of policy and action" against terrorism that included deploying Filipino combat troops and medical personnel subject to the concurrence of Congress, and allowing the use of Philippine air space and facilities as transit and staging grounds by the ICTC. Golez, however, said he and Fargo did not discuss the availability of Filipino combat troops. But Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said he would oppose this in Congress.

Senators Blas Ople, Rodolfo Biazon and Francis Pangilinan said the Philippines could best help the fight against global terrorism by going after and destroying the extremist Abu Sayyaf in the South. Ople, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, cautioned the President against committing Filipino troops. He pointed out that US President George W. Bush sought and got the approval of the US Congress in the anti-terrorism campaign, and that he expected Ms Macapagal to do the same.

Ople also said that if ever, Congress would have to appropriate money for the deployment of troops, and issued the reminder that the government had a "depleted treasury" and was plagued by "stagnant economic growth." Biazon said he agreed with the President's announced pillars of policy and action except for the deployment of combat troops. He said Filipino workers in the Middle East could become targets of terrorists if Filipino combat troops joined the armed conflict. "More seriously, it could complicate our problems in Mindanao," Biazon said, adding that he would prefer the deployment of medical teams to help in the expected refugee problem.

Pangilinan said the deployment of troops should be "symbolic in gesture," and recommended the sending of only a "small contingent." He said the Philippines could best help by helping bring home the foreigners still being held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan. Pangilinan also raised the need for the Philippines to address the economic problems that would result from an armed conflict, including the thousands of Filipino workers who might have to return home.

Speaker Jose de Venecia said the US government should formally request the Philippines if it would need the help of Filipino combat troops. "We will cross the bridge when we get there," De Venecia said when asked if the House would have problems concurring with such a request. But he said he personally had no reservations about it.

Hypocrisy

Leaders of militant groups took turns in assailing the President's 14-point anti-terrorism policy, saying it exposed the government's "hypocrisy and twisted policies." "Instead of upholding the country's sovereignty and giving life to the anti-war spirit of the Constitution, (she) gave in to the insane blackmail of the US government and upheld our criticism that she is a loyal puppet of imperialism," said Sanlakas president Wilson Fortaleza.
"(She) should have echoed the call of the Pope for peace instead of dragging the country into a new war that will victimize thousands of innocent civilians, not just a few terrorists," he added.

Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran lamented that while the government had offered to send doctors and nurses to help in the ICTC campaign, it had failed to address the "war against disease" that had long been raging in the country. "Countless of Filipino children die untreated from simple illnesses like measles or primary complex," he said. "The US government has more than enough high-quality medical facilities and personnel. It's an immoral and hypocritical offer."

Victor Briz, president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, said that instead of an all-out war, Ms Macapagal should busy herself waging war on poverty. Beltran also noted that the Philippines had "no credible guarantees" that the US military aircraft and vessels entering the country would not be carrying nuclear weapons and other toxic materials.

"The Philippine Coast Guard and other local police and military authorities do not have the right to examine or even just enter US military facilities. The Philippine government is just forced to take the Americans' word for it," he said, adding: "The very entry of these vessels and aircraft maligns Philippine sovereignty, and they also endanger the lives of Filipinos in the surrounding area."

Bayan secretary general Teodoro Casiño pointed out in a phone interview that the United States had "no legal basis" to use its former military bases because "definitely, (it) cannot invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty." "The only way that US military troops can be allowed to use the country's military facilities will be if they enter into an entirely new treaty with the government," Casiño said. He said groups led by Bayan would oppose this in Congress and eventually in the Supreme Court.

Golez said there would be "no permanent stationing" of US troops in Subic, "only to oversee transit and transshipment." But he said other uses of Subic and Clark by the ICTC would depend on how the conflict developed. "That's why they will inspect first and then, probably, they will find out what could be the possible use of the facilities," he said, adding:

"It depends on the kind of conflict that will unfold in the area. Until now they cannot say what kind of conflict they will see there because they are still assessing it. They are very careful and prudent in making the military response. They said it's going to be primarily diplomatic and financial offensive."

The women's group Pagkakaisa ng mga Kababaihan para sa Inang Bayan (Kaisaka) vowed to meet the planned use of the former bases with stiff opposition. "It's going to be protests for us. War is not the way to create peace in the world and to protect women and children," Kaisaka chair Sonia Soto said. But while it was unclear if the foreign troops would be allowed "rest and recreation" in Clark, a woman who claimed to belong to the League of Angeles City Entertainers and Managers said: "Of course, we like that. It would mean greenbacks for us."

With reports from Christine Avendaño, Philip C. Tubeza and Andrea Trinidad-Echavez

Top US Navy official visits Subic secretly
Posted: 11:30 PM (Manila Time) | September 26, 2001
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service

THE COMMANDER in chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, the biggest naval contingent in the Asia-Pacific region, quietly slipped into Subic, Zambales, on Tuesday night for a meeting with National Security Adviser Roilo Golez. After US Admiral Thomas B.Fargo arrived at the Subic Bay International Airport, he boarded the presidential yacht Ang Pangulo, a top Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) official, who asked not to be identified, told the INQUIRER. The source said Fargo had dinner with Golez and a handful of top Philippine naval officials.

As commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Fargo is responsible for the world's largest combined fleet command. He has authority over more than 190 ships and submarines, 1,400 aircraft, 191,000 sailors and Marines and 30,000 civilians. Fargo's arrival was unannounced. Not even the Department of Foreign Affairs was aware that he was in the country. The DFA reportedly made hurried phone calls to Subic to confirm the admiral's arrival.

Though the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States were the ``subject of light talks'' during the dinner, the SBMA source said Fargo did not delve into the US' plans to utilize its former military bases in Subic and Clark Air Base for the global campaign against terrorism. The source dismissed reports that ``high-level talks'' were held, stressing that Fargo was involved only in a ``completely social dinner'' that lasted for more than two hours. The source declined to say if Fargo and Golez engaged in an after-dinner meeting on policy matters on national security or on the use of the former US bases. But both Golez and Fargo were confirmed to have stayed in Subic until Wednesday morning.

Fargo was known to have done only one other thing while in the country. He discreetly motored out of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to pay a courtesy call to Olongapo City Mayor Katherine Gordon. Gordon confirmed to the INQUIRER that he met with Fargo. The meeting between the two was held behind closed doors, another source in Olongapo City said. But the mayor said, ``It was a purely social call."

As quietly as he arrived, Fargo flew out of Subic early Wednesday morning, the SBMA source said. In Clark, at least 12 American military personnel arrived on Monday, although the US military has cut short and canceled all Visiting Forces Agreement-related military exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Sources at the Holiday Inn Clark Field confirmed that some of their guests were US military personnel. But hotel officials declined to tell the INQUIRER the details of the their guests' hotel reservations. Officials of the Presidential Commission on the VFA (VFACOM) said they had no knowledge of the supposed entry of American military personnel in Clark and reiterated that VFA-related exercises had been canceled.

Philippines opens its ports to U.S. military
September 18, 2001 Posted: 9:27 PM HKT (1327 GMT)
By Rufi Vigilar

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- The Philippine government will allow U.S. military vessels free access to its ports, supporting America's campaign against terrorism after last week's attacks on New York and Washington. In a National Security Council meeting Tuesday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that the Philippines has an international commitment, citing that citizens from 35 countries were affected by the attacks.

House Speaker Jose de Venecia said the Philippines should be ready to welcome any request of the U.S. to use Philippine ports for refueling or the transit of American citizens from neighboring countries, even if this was a "remote possibility". Ports open to U.S. vessels will include those in former U.S. military bases in Clark and Subic.

De Venecia also proposed during the meeting to initiate a regional Anti-Terrorist Coalition which will include Malaysia and Indonesia. President Arroyo has pledged "full support" for the U.S.-led campaign to combat terrorism worldwide and has not ruled out the deployment of armed Philippine troops. Arroyo said, however, that Congress will have the final say on such a proposal.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez cited that "this is not just America's war", but added that "our soldiers may not be fit for that kind of warfare." A Mutual Defense Treaty binds the Philippines and the United States, but Philippine senators, retired military officers, and militant groups have cautioned the government against deploying armed troops.

Hostage crisis

Government critics say an unresolved hostage crisis and economic hurdles should limit Philippine support for America's anti-terrorism campaign. Senator Rodolfo Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief, said the government should first use its resources to solve its own terrorist problem in the south. Abu Sayyaf guerrillas still hold 18 hostages, including an American missionary couple, from three abductions staged since May 27.

The Muslim separatist group has beheaded 10 hostages and claims an American tourist has suffered the same fate though his body has not been found. Military intelligence say Abu Sayyaf members had trained under Osama bin Laden who reportedly visited the country in 1995. Bin Laden currently lives in Afghanistan and has been identified as the prime suspect by the U.S. in the attacks.

President Arroyo has approved the creation of a counter-terrorist committee under the national police, which would relay intelligence information on terrorist activities in the Philippines to the U.S.

Economic bind

Economic managers, on the other hand, favored unstinting support for any U.S. request for assistance. Besides citing the country's international commitment, Finance Secretary Antonio Camacho expressed worry that any hesitation could jeopardize the Philippines' loans with the World Bank on which the U.S. has great influence.

Camacho said that the country's growth targets may be affected this year by the U.S. economic slowdown which could be aggravated by war expenses and its restoration efforts in the wake of terrorist attacks. The possible evacuation of more than one million Filipino workers in the Middle East will also likely increase unemployment in the country, Camacho said.

Remittances from Filipino workers overseas, which helped prop up the economy during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, would also be reduced and affect the country's foreign reserves.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) closed yesterday a disco and videoke bar for allowing lewd shows and for employing entertainers without working permits. SBMA Chairman Felicito Payumo ordered the padlocking of Baywatch Videoke Bar after receiving complaints from concerned citizens against the establishment for allowing bold shows. He further noted that Baywatch violated SBMA’s policy of non-exhibition of lewd shows as this may lead to souring of Subic’s image as one of the country’s premiere economic zones.

"We will not allow this kind of shows here in the Freeport. Rest assured that the SBMA will be acting as a watchdog and make sure that this will not happen anymore," said. The SBMA Locator Registration and Assistance Department (LRAD) headed by Marjorie Capili, has already cancelled Baywatch’s permit to operate, leaving the establishment no choice but to cease their operations.

The Baywatch Videoke Bar was also found to have violated health and safety regulations like unfit health environment provided for their staff housed in the said establishment. It was also found out that most of the workers do not have proper working permits that allows them to be subjected for medical check-up by the health and welfare department of the SBMA.

40,000 Mount Pinatubo Villagers Return Home
By Jojo P. Malig

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga -- More than a week after government engineers and Aeta tribesmen drained off the Pinatubo crater lake at its Maraunot notch, some 40,000 residents in Zambales province have returned to their homes. Residents of some 18 villages in Botolan town, just northwest of Clark, were earlier forced to evacuate after government decided to artificially breach the nearly-overflowing Pinatubo crater lake.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) has already declared the Pinatubo crater area clear from the danger of water and lahar break-out. Erlin Rico, head of the Botolan Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council, however, revealed that six villages in the town have remained on high alert despite the return of residents.

Phivolcs-Clark resident volcanologist Jaime Sincioco mentioned the long term danger of the Pinatubo crater lake breakout. "The short-term danger is over, but the long-term danger is still there...we cannot say when unless there are abrupt changes in the flow of lake water into the artificially-created drainage canal at the Maraunot Notch," Sincioco told reporters.

He also noted an increase in the flow of lake water in the canal flowing towards downstream of the Botolan river system. Sincioco earlier revealed that the water inside the Pinatubo crater lake has continued to rise despite the construction of the drainage canal connected to the mouth of Pinatubo's Maraunot notch.

At least 100 workers composed of Aeta natives and lowlanders carved out a 100-meter long, 1-meter wide canal at Pinatubo's Maraunot Notch nearly two weeks ago. The operation, which was planned and overseen by government engineers and scientists from Phivolcs and the public works department, allowed the release of a large volume of accumulated rainwater at the Pinatubo crater.

Phivolcs scientists and Geologist Kelvin Rodolfo of the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Geological Services (UP-NIGS) warned of the dangers posed by the increasing volume of rainwater at the Pinatubo crater. If the crater would collapse, at least 220 million cubic meters of water and volcanic sediment materials would cascade down the volcano's slopes and trigger new and more massive lahar flows into low lying villages in Botolan.

Sincioco stressed that although Botolan residents were already allowed to go home, he urged them "not to be complacent" and get updates from the government's continued monitoring of the Pinatubo crater lake.

Philippine Crater Lake begins to Drain
September 6, 2001 Posted: 8:27 AM EDT (1227 GMT)

BOTOLAN, Philippines (CNN) -- In an operation considered one of the largest of its kind, the draining of a volcanic lake in the Philippines has begun. After a slow start, water was by early afternoon streaming through a canal dug on the west bank of the crater lake. The 75-meter-long canal has been constructed to reduce the threat of a deluge on a town of 40,000 residents below the Mount Pinatubo volcano in Zambales province, northwest of Manila.

Villagers had been evacuated for fear the volcano wall could collapse during the operation, sending a torrent of water thundering down the mountainside. But the initial outcome has proved far less dramatic, with little more than harmless streams of muddy brown water barely wetting the ankles of workers in the channel.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) director Raymundo Punongbayan said the emergency spillway dug by government workers and local Aeta tribesmen did not slope as steeply as planned. "The gradient apparently is not correct for the drain canal," he said. "The gradient is so low that the flow is almost static."

Flow increased

A squad of soldiers and policemen were immediately called in to help deepen the canal and by late afternoon had managed to increase the outpouring to a slow but steady stream. Scientists decided to drain the massive lake after its waters rose to critical levels following weeks of monsoon rains, threatening to cause a dangerous overflow. Thousands of villagers fled to emergency shelters in adjacent towns Wednesday, but hundreds of families living in the center Botolan, a coastal town facing the South China Sea, refused to go, saying looters might break into their homes.

The draining aimed to release about a tenth of the estimated 250 million cubic metres of water in the crater lake and direct it through river channels and out into the South China Sea. This would minimize the risk of an overflow in which torrents of water could sweep up tonnes of volcanic ash and boulders deposited on the slopes of the 1,445-meter (4,667-foot) high volcano and hurl them at Botolan, scientists said.

Tourism Secretary 'WOWs' Travelers
Posted: 0:44 AM (Manila Time) | September 02, 2001
By Norman Bordadora
Inquirer News Service

TOURISM Secretary Richard Gordon is poised to launch a "Wow, Philippines" campaign to counter foreign embassies’ recent advisories to their nationals against traveling to some parts of the Philippines. "Wow" may be a throwback to the hippie ’70s but trust the glib Gordon to give the cool expression of his youth fresh meaning, especially since his department has yet to realize his dream P750-million promotions budget for tourism.

So what’s "wow" now? "There are many meanings, each referring to what a particular destination has to offer our foreign visitors," Gordon told the INQUIRER. For instance, he said, "wow" could mean "welcome of warriors." This bold take "obviously plays to the international notoriety of the Abu Sayyaf," he admitted. But not quite: It "refers to the Moriones Festival in Antique, the Ati-atihan in Baguio, and similar warrior festivals around the country," he said.

"It will show the world that while we have problems in a couple of our islands, we are still a happy and hospitable people in general," Gordon said. "They would love to pay our islands a visit and enjoy our various festivals." And the man is just getting started. What about "warm in winter," which he plans to splash on posters for display in Nordic countries like Sweden?

"Imagine a poster of a tourist lying lazily in a hammock on a beach like Boracay in the winter months, which are just about to come in," Gordon said. "They would love to be warm and at the same time have fun in winter." There’s more where that’s coming from:

"Watch our whales" (a promotion of the whale sharks in the Bicol region). "Watch our wonders" (ecotourism spots). "Wild over wheels" (colorful jeepneys). "Watch or wonder" (shopping destinations). "Wow" posters and multi-media advertisements are being readied for the campaign launch sometime this month.

The Department of Tourism is also promoting group tourism packages for major cities such as Manila, Cebu and Davao, Gordon said. Naturally, excitement is the thing, which is why the packages are dubbed "Party in Manila," "Let’s boogie in Cebu," and "Be wowed in Davao." "Foreign tourists can have party packages in Malate or Intramuros and the other night destinations in the other cities," Gordon said, adding: "The Malaysians particularly love these."

The DOT has adopted a "hubs and spokes" strategy for tourism development, under which major international gateways serve as the hubs, or the center of airline activities, to which are connected the spokes, or the outlying destinations that can be reached by other means of transport. This strategy of attracting international travelers is fast gaining ground abroad, Gordon said. He also said foreign airlines were increasing their flights to the country.

Gordon cited JAS, a Japanese charter airline, as the latest among the DOT’s airline allies. He said it had committed to bring in five more flights from Osaka and pledged to put out promotional articles on the Philippines in Japanese airline publications.

President Arroyo has cited the "impressive performance" of Chairman Felicito Payumo of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority in a congratulatory message on Payumo’s third anniversary as SBMA chairman. She lauded Payumo for his impressive performance in handling the robust economic activities at the Freeport, particularly in attracting more investors and increasing the investments of existing locators.

In her message to Payumo, which was read over a new public affairs program of a local radio station, the President also cited SBMA’s effort to promote industrial harmony and its persevering efforts to protect the Freeport as one of the only few places in the country teeming with flora and fauna.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Speaker Jose de Venecia also sent their congratulatory messages to Payumo. Payumo also graced the SBMA job fair, initiated by 35 investors as their anniversary gift to him. Some 5,000 job applicants registered for 1,500 job openings.

"Where others are laying off workers, here in Subic, we open doors to applicants!" he enthused. Within the three years of the Payumo administration, the SBMA has posted a 300-percent increase in employment and has created some 41,513 job opportunities. This figure is higher than the employment peak during the time that the area was a US Navy installation.

Industrial harmony was also enhanced with four more companies joining the growing list of companies that have formed their own Labor-Management Cooperation Council. Payumo signed a memorandum of agreement yesterday morning with the Chung Nan Textile, Duty Free Superstore, Legend International Resorts, and the Freeport Service Corporation.

Earlier, Payumo signed similar agreements with the Energetic Garments, Winnie’s Garments, and Bayshore General Merchandise and General Services. Payumo explained that the LMCs will allow the employees and their managers to discuss and try to resolve among themselves whatever issues and problems might crop up in the company before taking them up to a higher level.

MANILA - For as long as anyone can remember, the Philippines has had the dubious reputation of being one of the least safe countries in Southeast Asia, and nowadays even more so. With crime and lawlessness seemingly spiraling out of control - especially the kidnap for ransom of Filipino Chinese and foreign businessmen - at least 10 foreign embassies in the country have issued warnings to their citizens to take extra precautions when moving in and around the Philippines.

There is, however, an alarming development directly affecting foreigners in the Philippines that has been taking place over the past few years and which not a single foreign embassy has bothered to address. It is the growing racket of quasi-legal extortion targeted specifically at foreigners. This has its roots in laws aimed at curbing child abuse, specifically with the intent of vigorously prosecuting foreign pedophiles who have for years operated openly in the Philippines.

While the laws may have had a noble intent, they have unwittingly resulted in a witch hunt hysteria that has sparked a growing industry of extortion where mere accusations take on the mantle of guilt and human rights are completely trampled in the process. This appalling development is glaringly highlighted in a newly released book entitled Sentenced to Death, written by long-time Philippine residents Earl Wilkinson and Alan Atkins. It chronicles the incredible story of Englishman Albert Wilson, who, back in 1996, was falsely accused of raping his 12-year-old Filipino stepdaughter. In a legal process that can best be described as farcical, Wilson was arrested and subsequently convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Three nightmarish years later, Wilson, through the help of Wilkinson and Atkins, was acquitted by the Philippine Supreme Court and set free.

Ironically, while Wilkinson may have helped set Wilson free, he probably had a hand in getting him involved in the ordeal in the first place. The Aussie Wilkinson is well known throughout the Philippines for his tireless efforts in trying to enact legislation aimed at catching and prosecuting foreign pedophiles. Wilkinson's incessant letter writing and high profile campaign was partly responsible for the 1992 Republic Act 7610, which was designed specifically to catch and prosecute foreign pedophiles.

In an attempt to cast as wide a net as possible, Philippines lawmakers decreed that "any person who shall keep or have in his company a minor, 12 years or under or is 10 years or more his junior in any public or private place, hotel, motel, beer joint, discotheque, cabaret, pension house, sauna or massage parlor, beach and or other tourist resort or similar places shall suffer the penalty of three years in prison and a fine of not less than 50,000 pesos [about US$1,000]". In 1996, the Philippines brought back the death penalty and raised the crime of child rape to a heinous one punishable by death.

By anyone's standards, Republic Act 7610 is blatantly vague and is clearly open for liberal interpretation. If a child sits down next to you while you're sunbathing on the beach you can be accused of child rape. What is even more unnerving, however, is the nature of the law in the Philippines. The government does not initiate a complaint, rather, a private party must file a complaint for there to be a case. If the complainant decides to withdraw that complaint, then there is no case. In other words, a case can be lodged against anyone on a mere complaint, then subsequently withdrawn. (Read: "Pay me some money and I'll drop the case.") This state of affairs, as Wilkinson and Atkins point out, can only be defined as "legal blackmail".

In the case of child rape, even if the offense was alleged to have taken place many months before, the accused can't get bail. With the notoriously snail-like pace of the Philippine justice system, the accused could easily spend more than a year in jail, all on a mere accusation. (Read: "I'll pay up so I can get out of here.") And a person's chances of acquittal are slim at best.

Wilkinson points out that as child abuse cases have generated a witch hunt mentality in recent years, judges compete with each other to see who can get the most scalps on their belts. Guilty verdicts and stiff sentences mean faster promotions. And judges almost always take the side of the young victim, holding the preposterous Victorian belief similar to that of a judge who said, "This court cannot believe that a Filipina of minor age would admit to the loss of her chastity and possibly ruin her future marriage opportunities unless it were true."

Wilkinson also notes that while Republic Act 7610 was designed to catch foreign pedophiles, it has had the boomerang effect of sending to death row hundreds of Filipino men. And it's not like the police are performing investigative miracles. In a country with no divorce, Wilkinson says that the law has become a way for a wife to get rid of an abusive husband. In just over four years since the death penalty was enacted, the Philippine courts have handed down over 900 death sentences, with well over 60 percent of them coming from child rape cases.

In the case of Albert Wilson, he was lucky that Earl Wilkinson was nursing a pint of beer at a local pub in 1998 when someone approached him about the case of the convicted and incarcerated Englishman and told him he thought Wilson was innocent. After some exhaustive research, Wilkinson concurred that a miscarriage of justice had taken place and that an innocent man was about to die. He realized as well that perhaps his work fighting pedophiles had gone too far, and that innocent people were being wrongly sentenced to death. He thus went from being a pedophile buster to helping save a man wrongly convicted of child rape.

Wilkinson and writer Alan Atkins thus plunged into Wilson's case, trying to save a man they didn't even know. In the book they describe their task as "Mission near impossible" as rarely are convictions in child rape cases in the Philippines overturned by the high court. The book itself is long on particulars as Wilkinson and Atkins retrace each and every step of the case. It contains detailed transcripts from the trial as well as letters from Wilson as he sits on death row awaiting his appeal. At times the narrative is mind-numbingly detailed, with points being made that only a lawyer would care about. But with a little persistence what is revealed are the exposure of the Philippine judicial system at the provincial level, the incompetence and maneuverings of many lawyers and the awful conditions of Philippine prisons.

We learn how Albert Wilson was arrested on a mere complaint without any investigation, handcuffed and hauled off to jail with his wife, who wasn't even charged. We discover the role of the natural father, who was broke and had drinking buddies inside the local police department and encouraged his young daughter to bring the charge. Before he was convicted, Wilson was approached several times in jail by the alleged victim's lawyers asking that he fork out over $25,000 for the case to be dropped.

Through the court transcripts we see clearly how the alleged victim, the daughter of Wilson's Filipina wife, is actively encouraged by her natural father and time and again changes her story while under oath and how the provincial judge blatantly ignores the obvious inconsistencies. The judge then completely ignores two doctors, one a witness for the prosecution and a medical examiner from the National Bureau of Investigation, who debunk the rape charge by stating emphatically that it never occurred. The judge also ignores the testimony of the girl's immediate family, who state that the rape never happened.

When Wilson was convicted of child rape and sentenced to die by lethal injection, he had already been in jail for two years. Clearly, if it wasn't for Wilkinson and Atkins taking up the appeal, Wilson would be dead today. One of the most disturbing parts of the book is the conduct of the defense lawyers, whose shoddy preparation shows how little they care even when a man's life is at stake. The descriptions of life inside death row are equally disturbing as they reveal appalling sub-human conditions. Sentenced to Death deals only with the case of Albert Wilson, but Wilkinson recently pointed out that false accusations for rape and child abuse against foreigners are becoming increasingly frequent in the Philippines. Often, he claims, the accused just pay off the complainant so the charge can be dropped and they can reclaim their lives. Others refuse to pay and have received outrageously stiff sentences.

With its emphasis on legal detail, the book appears at times more suited to those in the legal profession. But the message it imparts is frightening for any foreigner who lives, works and/or travels in and around the Philippines. Co-author Atkins put it best when, immediately after a horrifying visit to Wilson on death row he wrote, "How could this happen? Why was it allowed to happen? Could it happen to others? More important, could it happen to me? The answer to the final question was a definite 'yes'. In the Philippines today, it can happen to just about anyone."

Sentenced to Death is published by Book of Dreams, Germany.
Ted Lerner is the author of Hey, Joe-a slice of the city, an American in Manila. He can be reached via email at tedlheyjoe@yahoo.com.

Draining of Pinatubo Crater Lake
08/17/2001

A dozen Aeta tribesmen with picks and shovels started climbing the Mount Pinatubo yesterday on a dangerous mission to drain a crater lake that threatens their villages with massive floods. Tugging along a leashed pig to sacrifice to the mountain god, the Aeta tribesmen were to carve a notch in the volcanoes crater to bleed water from the rising lake.

The workers, accompanied by a dozen porters, two engineers and others, were expected to chop five meters off the lowest point of Pinatubo's summit and drain the lake that has risen to within five meters of the crater's rim. Raymundo Punongbayan, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said it is believed to be the first attempt in the world to drain water from a volcano lake in such a manner. He said water has been drained from the Kelud volcanic lake in Indonesia by boring through the crater wall. He said that procedure would be too expensive for the cash-strapped Philippines.

Without the canal, the weight of the water that has been rising rapidly in the May-October rainy season, could shatter upper walls of the 1,445-meter volcano and endanger 40,000 villagers nearby, geologists said. Willy Bulanhigan, a 45-year-old worker who was to supervise the digging, said the Aeta diggers, would sacrifice the pig and pour a bottle of gin on the crater rim before beginning work to appease the supreme Aeta god who they believe lives in the volcano. The diggers are paid P180 a day and were given picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, along with a weeks supply of rice and canned food.

Government geologists, supervising and planning the work, ruled out the use of explosives or heavy equipment for fear it could unpredictably tear away at the crater. Local officials said as many as 200 men will be needed to complete the operation over the next two weeks or so. On completion of the initial five-meter notch, geologists predict another five meters of already-weakened wall would give way, draining 15 million cubic meters of the lake's 200 million cubic meters of water in five hours. About 200 villagers in the likely path of the water flow have moved to safer areas.

A new study released yesterday by the Phivolcs revealed that unless Mt. Pinatubo's crater lake is artificially breached soon, its collapse could unleash 150 to 300 million cubic meters of lahars roaring down the slopes at a maximum rate of 11,000 cubic meters per second. "That's why the artificial breaching of the Maraunot notch should be done immediately," said Jaime Sincioco, resident volcanologist of the Phivolcs at Clark Field. The study also said that without artificial intervention, the Maraunot notch could collapse in 15 minutes to three hours after the start of the overflow of the crater lake which would reach the notch by the latter part of this September.

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Atlanta - Oral sex poses an extremely low risk of HIV infection, according to a study released yesterday at the second National HIV Prevention Conference here. Kimberly Page Schafer and her colleagues at the University of California at San Francisco have reached that conclusion after two years of searching for someone who has acquired HIV from oral sex. After two years and nearly 200 individuals closely studied, Schafer said in an interview, "Everyone has come up negative. "Oral sex is safer," Schafer said. "You can get other sexually transmitted diseases from oral sex, such as gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia and herpes. But it appears that the risk from oral sex for HIV is an order of magnitude lower than for anal sex."

Schafer's group intended to put together a study comparing people who got HIV from oral sex to those who did not, and then search for factors that could explain the difference. For two years they combed sex clubs and HIV clinics from San Diego to San Francisco searching for men and women whose sole sexual activities are oral.

The 198 participants, 194 of whom are men, have a mean of three different sex partners in six months, engaging in multiple oral sex encounters. Statistically, they are far more sexually active than the average American. It is a group at high risk for HIV, since 20 percent of them report knowingly having sex with HIV-positive men, and many more admit to not knowing the HIV status of one or more partners. Yet only one of the 198 individuals was HIV-positive, and a sophisticated test showed he had become infected years before, at a time when he practiced anal intercourse.

In a separate UCSF mathematical modeling study, Drs. Susan Buchbinder and Eric Vittinghoff calculated that the odds of acquiring HIV from any single act of oral sex with an infected partner are roughly four in 10,000, compared with odds of four in 1,000 for anal sex with a condom. Schafer said, "Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

As part of their study the UCSF team is collecting saliva from all study participants, which is being analyzed for factors that may control or destroy HIV. At least four types of chemicals found in human saliva destroy HIV, or render it immobile in test tube studies. Nobody knows whether any of these chemicals are active in real life.

It is possible that the group studied was skewed to people who are more health-conscious when it comes to testing for HIV. Schafer discovered that most of the 198 individuals in her study had undergone previous HIV tests, and came to the study in hopes of being tested again. They were also far more likely than the average individual to have seen a dentist within the last six months. Exactly how those attitudes may have influenced the results isn't clear.

By Jen Velarmino 08/08/2001

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Felicito Payumo ordered yesterday an investigation into the reported looting of historical artifacts from sunken vessels in the Subic Bay.
Payumo formed the Task Force Bay Watch, headed by the SBMA Ecology Center with direct participation by community leaders, particularly in fishing villages in the nearby towns of Zambales and Bataan.

Jim Robertson, operator of the Subic Bay Aqua Sports Inc., was the one who brought the looting to Payumo’s attention. He is a member of the task force.
In a letter to Payumo, Robertson said the destruction of some of the Subic Bay’s famous tourist attractions "cannot be possible" without the looters acting in collusion with the SBMA’s harbor patrol unit.

Initial investigation by the SBMA’s investigation and intelligence office showed that fishermen from Subic, Zambales were able to penetrate the shipwreck site and took several parts of the sunken vessels, including a propeller.

Payumo has relieved the harbor patrol unit’s officer-in-charge and beefed up security measures in the Subic Bay.

MANILA, Philippines -- Ten years after raining fire in a huge eruption, the crater of Mount Pinatubo is filling with water that threatens to unleash mass floods and inundate villages.

Philippine officials say the trapped rainwater was rising to dangerous levels and they would have to dig a canal on the slopes to avert a disaster. Local residents, using picks, shovels and jack hammers, will start the digging work in two weeks to allow the waters to flow down to a river and safely away from thousands of villagers living near the volcano, police commander Colonel Reynaldo Berroya told Reuters. "This is the first time we are intervening with nature and hopefully the assessments are correct," Berroya said on local radio.

Up to 20 million cubic meters of water is expected to be released in the breaching operation, Zambales provincial governor Vicente Magsaysay told Manila's ANC television. More than 800 people were killed when Pinatubo, 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Manila, erupted in 1991. Last month, geologists commissioned by the British emergency agency Oxfam warned Pinatubo's crater wall was in danger of collapsing and that an avalanche of water and debris could engulf the town of Botolan and its 46,000 inhabitants.

The geologists said the avalanche could result in a catastrophe similar to the one caused by the crater-lake breached on the Casita volcano in Nicaragua in 1998 that buried two villages and killed about 2,000 people.

Berroya said the gap between the surface of the crater-lake water and the brim of Pinatubo volcano had narrowed sharply to five meters (16 feet) from 6.5 meters (21 feet) in recent weeks.

"The waters are rising fast at a rate of more or less one meter a month and could rise faster now that the rains have come," he said. Mount Pinatubo is one of the Philippines' two most closely watched volcanoes. The other monitored volcano, Mt. Mayon, 330 km (200 miles) southeast of Manila, has been erupting for nearly two weeks, spewing lava and molten rocks, but there have been no casualties.

International Herald Tribune
July 13, 2001
By Thomas Fuller, International Herald Tribune

MANILA--Strapped for cash and battling three insurgencies at once, the Philippines is considering transforming the deepwater port at Subic Bay into a naval base for hire and inviting foreign militaries, including that of the United States, to dock, service and repair warships there for a fee.

The administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is considering the move as a way to help pay for its urgently needed military modernization program, according to Angelo Reyes, the defense secretary.

"We have assets - real estate - that have no immediate utilization," Mr. Reyes said. "To enable us to modernize more rapidly, we have to be creative in looking for sources of financing." The proposal would bridge the intersecting worlds of commerce and military maintenance and perhaps serve, one Filipino official said, as part of a 21st-century solution to the problem of dealing with the resentment and controversies that surround U.S. bases in Asia.

"If we can operate Subic as a commercial facility that could be used by vessels of other countries, that would be ideal," Mr. Reyes said. "This would be commercial because it's in our constitution that we cannot have bases here." The proposal is being made more than a decade after the Philippine Senate voted not to renew Washington's lease on U.S. facilities at Subic and nearby Clark Air Base. The United States closed the bases, once key parts of its Pacific organization, in 1991 and 1992.

In describing the Subic proposal, Mr. Reyes chose his words carefully. The plan to provide services for warships, he said, "is being floated around, a

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	US Navy ship docks at Subic
	Bomb Blast Rattles Philippine Town
	Foreign group arrives as US advisers are awaited
	More US military advisers head to the Philippines
	Sex workers rush to Angeles
	Travel bans imperil 50,000 tourism jobs
	US military advisers arrive to train troops in Mindanao
	Court orders arrest of Imelda Marcos
	U.S. sending 'anti-terror team' to Manila
	US to send counter-terrorist advisers to Philippines soon
	US briefs RP on plans for using Subic, Clark
	Top US Navy official visits Subic secretly
	Philippines opens its ports to U.S. military
	SBMA Closes Disco for Lewd Shows
	40,000 Mount Pinatubo Villagers Return Home
	Philippine Crater Lake begins to Drain
	Tourism Secretary 'WOWs' Travelers
	President Arroyo cites Impressive Performance of SBMA Chairman
	HEY, JOE: Damned by the children
	Draining of Pinatubo Crater Lake
	Oral Sex Poses Low HIV Risk (Good news for your Girlfriend!)
	Sunken ships in Subic Bay being looted
	Volcano menaces with fire and water
	Base-For-Hire Plan Could Put The U.S. Navy Back In Subic Bay
	Rumsfeld Limiting Military Contacts With the Chinese