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Archive 5 February 2002 - March 2002 Note: These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Management, Staff and Employees of Mango's. |
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News and Info Current | 12/04 - ... |
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News and Info Archive 11 | 12/04 - 12/05 |
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News and Info Archive 10 | 1/04 - 12/04 |
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News and Info Archive 9 | 7/03 - 12/03 | |
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News and Info Archive 8 | 1/03 - 6/03 |
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News and Info Archive 7 | 8/02 - 1/03 | |
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News and Info Archive 6 | 3/02 - 7/02 |
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News and Info Archive 5 | 2/02 - 3/02 | |
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News and Info Archive 4 | 1/02 - 11/01 |
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News and Info Archive 3 | 11/01 - 7/01 | |
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News and Info Archive 2 | 3/01 - 2/00 |
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News and Info Archive 1 | - 1999 |
US starts salvage
of downed Chinook
Posted: 3:28 AM (Manila Time) | Mar. 26, 2002
By Alex V. Pal
Inquirer News Service
DUMAGUETE CITY – The United States Armed Forces on Monday started salvage work on a Chinook MH 47 helicopter which crashed some seven miles south of Apo Island on Feb. 22, killing all American eight crewmen and two passengers on board. US Navy Lt. Commodore Richard Thiel told reporters here that 18 US Marines from the 510th Joint Task Force based in Zamboanga had arrived in Dumaguete, base of operations, to take part in search and recovery efforts.
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Thiel said search and recovery could last two weeks. The work was expected to
assist investigators in determining the cause of the crash, he added.
During a courtesy call on Gov. George Arnaiz on Saturday, Thiel assured
officials that proper containment measures would be taken to ensure minimal
environmental damage by oil spills in the event the wreckage was found and
raised aboard the salvage ship.
The US Army, which is in charge of the search and recovery operation, has
contracted the MV Jansteen, a Dutch multi-purpose off-shore support vessel
capable of depths which could not be reached by US Navy Safeguard vessels. The
ship, through its A-frame, can lift a load of 150 tons.
The wreckage of the Chinook was earlier estimated to rest some 4,000 meters
underwater.
An ongoing strike of stevedores at the port area prevented the MV Jansteen from
docking at Dumaguete City. The ship dropped anchor some 5,000 meters from the
pier.
The Philippine Navy ferried the US Marines to the vessel. Its men will also
provide security during the two-week activity.
The salvage operation is being undertaken even as an eight-man team of US
investigators is analyzing recovered debris and going over the statements of
witnesses in an effort to determine the cause of the crash.
The investigators are from Fort Rucker, headquarters of the Air Force Special
Operations Command in Alabama, the Hurlburt Field in Florida and from the US
Forces in Seoul.
The team is headed by a major acting as the president of the board of
investigators. The other members include four senior warrant officers, two
senior non-commissioned officers and a captain.
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U.S. rescue mission for Filipino soldiers
March 22, 2002
Posted: 12:44 AM EST (0544 GMT)
TABIAWAN ARMY BASE, Philippines (AP) -- U.S. military medics have
flown into a combat zone to treat and evacuate seven Filipino soldiers wounded
in a clash with Muslim extremists in the southern Philippines. The fight broke out Thursday morning near the coconut-growing village of
Bolansa on the southern island of Basilan, Philippine military spokesman Major
Noel Detoyato said.
It
spread more than a kilometer to the nearby Upper Manggas area, close to where
six U.S. special forces members bunk with 50 Filipinos and their battalion
commander in a sandbagged, hilltop base. The clash with rebels of the Abu Sayyaf, an al Qaeda-linked group, is the
third in the area in seven days. At least 12 Filipinos were wounded and one killed. The army says at least
four guerrillas were killed, six captured and several wounded.
Two Filipino Huey helicopters were sent in with two U.S. medics to treat the wounded and fly them to a hospital before sundown Thursday, Detoyato said. Philippine army Colonel Jessie Dellosa said the firefight started when 60 elite Philippine Scout Rangers, patrolling coconut groves known to shelter guerrillas, encountered 20 members of Abu Sayyaf.
About 660 U.S. troops, including 160 special forces members, are in the southern Philippines to train Filipino soldiers battling Abu Sayyaf, who are currently holding U.S. missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham hostage along with Filipina nurse Ediborah Yap. The American troops are allowed to carry weapons but are only allowed to fire in self defense. Abu Sayyaf, thought to number 1,000 before an army offensive started last June, now has only an estimated 60 fighters on Basilan.
On Tuesday, Green Berets entered a combat zone in the same area to give first aid after guerrillas firing rifle grenades and small arms wounded two members of a Philippine army patrol. In the same area a week ago, two U.S. Pave Hawk helicopters evacuated three wounded soldiers and took out one dead after a clash with the rebels.
Unmanned U.S. surveillance aircraft overfly the island regularly, increasing the number of sightings of the highly mobile guerrillas. Also crucial, say Philippine commanders, is the U.S. night-flight capability, particularly in evacuating men injured in clashes in the jungle darkness.
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2,665 US troops
arriving in Central Luzon
Posted: 0:37 AM (Manila Time) | Mar. 21, 2002
By Martin P. Marfil and Juliet L. Javellana
Inquirer News Service
3 countries involved
NOT 1,700 but 2,665 US soldiers will take part in the RP-US Balikatan 02-2 set
to start next month in Central Luzon, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said
Wednesday, contradicting the announcement Tuesday of Armed Forces spokesperson
Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan.
Reyes said 10 more military exercises involving US troops would be held this
year, although these would be "relatively smaller" than Balikatan 02-1 and 02-2.
"All of them are short--two-day, one-week exercises," he said. But lawmakers
expressed alarm at the growing number of US troops coming into the Philippines
and raised the suspicion that this could signal the establishment of the country
as a US staging ground in the region.
Reyes said there was a US proposal to merge the Balikatan with a larger military
exercise that would involve several other countries. He said the exercise would
be called "Team Challenge" and would be spearheaded by the United States, which
had been holding exercises with such countries as Australia, Korea and Thailand.
"Now there is a move to have all of these under one exercise and call it Team
Challenge," Reyes said at a press conference. "If we have Balikatan form part of
the larger exercise, then that will be a foreign policy issue and we might have
to discuss that with the Department of Foreign Affairs and eventually seek
clearance from the President." Reyes pointed out that the annual Balikatan was a
bilateral, and not multilateral, exercise.
If other foreign troops were to participate in Team Challenge and it would be
held in the Philippines, then there would be a need to forge agreements with the
other countries similar to the VFA. For now, troops from other countries can
only get close to the Balikatan exercises as "observers."
House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla (Nueva Vizcaya), Assistant Minority Leader
Abraham Mitra (Palawan) and Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Apolinario Lozada Jr.
also said that if the ongoing Balikatan 02-1 in Basilan was governed by Terms of
Reference, a corresponding TOR should be drawn up for Balikatan 02-2 because of
the large number of participating US troops.
Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran rejected the two Balikatan exercises outright
and accused the government of helping the United States set up new military
bases in Southern Mindanao. But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the
impending arrival of thousands of US troops should not alarm the public because
this was part of the joint war games regularly held under the RP-US Visiting
Forces Agreement. She said those protesting the US troops' arrival were the same
"anti-American" groups that objected to the VFA.
"These are the people who are always criticizing the Balikatan, the VFA, which
the Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional," she said. "These are the
anti-Americans, and we have to live with that." The President said as many as
5,000 US troops were arriving in one year for the Balikatan exercises.
TOR need still being
mulled
Ms Macapagal said she had yet to decide whether she would also seek a TOR for
Balikatan 02-2. She said she only insisted on a TOR for Balikatan 02-1 to allay
fears that the US troops would engage in combat with the Abu Sayyaf.
Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines, chided protest groups for opposing the President's decision to let
US troops take part in joint operations against the Abu Sayyaf.
Such critics are ignoring the "overwhelming"
support for the US assistance in the fight against the bandit group, Quevedo
said in a statement. He said the anti-US protests were turning "a molehill into
a mountain." But Beltran said there was no more doubt that the US troops were
here to advance American economic and political interests in Southeast Asia, and
not to train Filipinos to stamp out the Abu Sayyaf.
He accused the administration of colluding with the United States to reestablish
US military bases "behind the people's back." Adan had announced that 1,700 US
troops would be coming for Balikatan 02-2. There is also a proposal for the
deployment of 300 more US troops in Basilan, where there are already 660 US
soldiers.
"Parami nang parami (the number is getting bigger)," Padilla said, theorizing
that the reason authorities did not want a TOR for the military exercise in
Central Luzon was "all US forces will eventually converge in Mindanao." "If
there's no TOR for Luzon, it would be easier for them to transfer the US forces
to Mindanao," he told the Inquirer.
Rigoberto Tiglao, spokesperson for the President, was quoted as saying Tuesday
that Balikatan 02-2 did not require a TOR, unlike Balikatan 02-1 that was being
held in an "area of conflict." But Padilla said: "If you required a TOR for
Mindanao, I don't see why it should not be applicable in Luzon."
Lozada said that a TOR was necessary for the Balikatan in Luzon, and that the
government should explain its position. "Exercises like these should be governed
by guidelines all the time," said Lozada, chair of the House foreign relations
committee that is set to resume its inquiry on the Balikatan.
According to Mitra, a TOR is necessary for Balikatan 02-2 especially if, as some
reports have it, the exercise will involve troops from other countries like
South Korea and Malaysia. "If a large number of troops are involved that it
would require expanded guidelines, if there would be a quantum leap, (then we
should ask) for ground rules," Mitra said. He added that there should be
"different rules for different war exercises."
'Second Afghanistan?'
Lozada said the imminent arrival of thousands of US troops was "intriguing"
because 'they are coming one (Balikatan) after another." "What is the gravity of
terrorist infiltration in our country?" he said. "Have we become the second
Afghanistan?"
He said the US government should disclose its
"geo-political game plan" because the Philippines was appearing to be "a staging
ground for other countries." Both Padilla and Beltran agreed with this
observation.
"Even before the coming of American troops, there were reports that General
Santos City was being set up as a possible base for US operations," Padilla
said, adding: "All of these indicate the growing interest of Americans in
Mindanao, and, as I said before, the agenda is not just combat operations but
something big."
Beltran said that after US bases and troops were banned in the Philippines, the
United States used the Agency for International Development to build a "massive
new naval and air base in Southern Mindanao." He and Padilla were referring to
the international airport and related facilities in General Santos.
"Now the troops have begun to come in so that they can begin using the bases and
continue the American government's campaign of global military aggression and
economic hegemony," Beltran said in a statement. He expressed support for calls
by several members of Congress to investigate the continuing US presence in the
country.
"The US troops have been here for more than two months already but they have not
helped the AFP capture the (Abu Sayyaf) and rescue its hostages," he said. "So
far, the American troops appear to be here to conduct covert operations on their
own and to flaunt their weapons in public."
Victoriano Lecaros, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, said no
TOR was required for Balikatan 02-2 because there was no "threat of hostile
action" in Luzon. "The TOR governing the 660 US troops and 3,800 Filipino
soldiers was put in place to allay fears that the Americans will engage in
combat operations, considering that the exercise sites are near the combat zone
areas in Basilan," he said.
But in the case of Luzon, he said, the threat and the risk of encountering the
Abu Sayyaf bandits was nonexistent. Asked if the New People's Army could not be
considered a real threat, he said: "The communist NPAs have been there for so
long. They are no threat."
Lecaros stressed that the TOR governing Balikatan 02-01 came about upon the
insistence of Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr. He said
Guingona wanted to make sure that the Americans were not out to wipe out the Abu
Sayyaf bandits, whom the Philippine military were considering a "domestic
problem." With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Christine Herrera
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U.S.
and Philippine Governments Revive Old Relationship
March 4, 2002
By RAYMOND BONNER
MANILA, March 2 — For decades the Philippines and the United States had a "special relationship" forged during World War II, when the colony gave its men and blood, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur made his famous promise to return. It turned sour in the early 1990's, when the Philippine political leaders, in an eruption of nationalism, evicted the United States from two valuable pieces of military real estate. Officers were so piqued at losing their club at Subic Bay Naval Station that they tore out the bowling lanes when they left.
The two countries barely talked during the Clinton administration. Now, in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, the old relationship has been revived. "There is renewed energy," Roberto R. Romulo, the foreign policy adviser to the Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said in an interview here on Friday. "Relations have never been better," he said. Domestically, the Philippines' improved relationship with Washington has bolstered Mrs. Macapagal Arroyo immensely, Mr. Romulo said, a reflection of the reservoir of pro- Americanism here, which he said is overshadowed by the loud rhetoric from nationalists and leftists.
The most visible sign of the renewed relationship is the arrival of American troops who are working with the Filipino soldiers to defeat Abu Sayyaf, the terrorist gang holding two American hostages. But there is far more. Out of the spotlight, the United States and the Philippines are discussing a treaty that would give the Americans "access rights." That would allow the United States to store weapons here. American combat aircraft would have permanent overflight rights, and American troops could set up camps in the archipelago for short periods. Before too long, American warships might even call again at Subic Bay, although this time the United States would enter into commercial arrangements with private suppliers, whether for repairs or laundry, Mr. Romulo said. "Why should they go to Singapore?" he asked.
Mr. Romulo was foreign minister from 1992 to 1995. His father, Carlos P. Romulo, was a founder of the United Nations and a Philippine secretary of foreign affairs. "When my father was secretary of foreign affairs, he could dress down the American secretary of state," Mr. Romulo said. "When I became secretary of foreign affairs, I could barely see a deputy secretary of state." There is one overarching imperative for a strong American-Philippine relationship, Mr. Romulo said. It is the "geopolitical realities of the region." Or, in a word, China.
"We will always maintain cordial relations with China," he said. "But to balance any hegemonic tendencies from China, to discourage them from any ambitions in our part of the world, we have to maintain a strong relationship with the United States." On the other side, the United States needs the Philippines as a counter to China, to ensure that sea and air lanes remain open, he said, a view subscribed to by many foreign policy analysts in the United States.
At home, the new relationship with the United States has helped Mrs. Macapagal Arroyo "demolish the opposition," Mr. Romulo said. Mrs. Macapagal Arroyo became president in January 2001, when Joseph Estrada, facing an impeachment trial on corruption charges, resigned. She had been serving as Mr. Estrada's vice president. But Mr. Estrada, a former movie star, has a large following, and last May 1, after he had been jailed, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos marched on Malacanang, the presidential palace. They had the backing of ambitious military officers; the fear of a coup was palpable.
Today, Mrs. Macapagal Arroyo enjoys overwhelming popularity, thanks to her rapprochement with the United States. After she signed on to the Bush administration's war on terrorism, she brought back promises from Washington of $4.6 billion in military and economic aid. The new relationship has not always been smooth, however. The Philippines has not appreciated being linked with Somalia, Yemen and Indonesia as likely places of operation for Al Qaeda terrorists.
Worse was President Bush's "axis of evil" remark in his State of the Union address, linking Iraq, Iran and North Korea. That sent shudders through leaders in Southeast Asia, Mr. Romulo said. "G. W. has to choose his words more carefully because it shakes us all up," he added. When Mr. Bush did not stop here during his recent trip to Asia, Mrs. Macapagal Arroyo minced no words in telling American officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, of her displeasure.
She had taken considerable political risks in allowing the Americans to come to hunt down Abu Sayyaf, she said. She deserved more in return, she said. She could not convince the administration to arrange a visit, but she is determined to benefit from the relationship. To woo even more of Mr. Estrada's supporters, "all we have to do is get the Burnhams," Mr. Romulo said, referring to Martin and Gracia Burnham, who are being held by Abu Sayyaf. "Or fly in George W."
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Arrival of
Americans has poured $60M into Mindanao
Posted: 0:24 AM (Manila Time) | Mar. 02, 2002
By Julie S. Alipala
Inquirer News Service
Improved climate
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Less than a month after the arrival here of United States
forces for joint training exercises with the Philippine military, the country's
investment climate has improved markedly and foreign investor interest has been
rekindled, officials said here Friday.
"I think people are generally happy with this cooperation that we entered into
(with America) to address a problem that has plagued us for a long time," said
Alberto del Rosario, Philippine ambassador to the United States, in an
interview.
Del Rosario, who visited the US and Filipino
troops in Basilan on Thursday, said some 60 million dollars in grants and
investments have poured into Mindanao alone and that more fund commitments are
coming.
He said Bloomberg has rated the Philippines as one of the best performing stock
markets in the world.
Maria Socorro Cipriano, marketing chief of the Zamboanga Ecozone, said the
Balikatan exercises have drawn in more than 100 million pesos worth of
investment commitments. "Last year, not a single call or letter of intent was
sent to us," Cipriano said.
Del Rosario cited various reasons for the foreign investors' renewed interest,
among them the government's "very proficient" management of the economy and the
political will to address the terrorist problem.
Cipriano said that as soon as the news on the coming of the Americans spread,
the Ecozone received dozens of calls and letters of intent from prospective
investors. One of these was from a Korean who proposed to build a
128-million-peso plant for the production of corrugated boxes. A German company
has also proposed a recycling plant that would turn used clothes into gloves,
pillows and stuffed toys at an estimated cost of 50 million pesos.
WAE Manufacturing, a China-based company, has also firmed up plans to set up a
15-million-peso fruit-processing facility. Ricardo Marmoleno, past president of
the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc., said the renewed
economic activity triggered by the war games has been an inspiration to small
businessmen.
City Administrator Antonio Orendain Jr. said his office has received more than
20 additional applications for permits for restaurants, eateries and videoke
bars. The Americans themselves are contributing about 200,000 pesos per day to
the Balikatan Trade Fair alone.
The Burnhams
Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, meanwhile, said US hostages Martin
and Gracia Burnham were still in the Maluso area of Basilan. Asked if the
information was based on intelligence gathered with the help of the equipment
brought in by the Americans, Cimatu said the information came from the military
command posts in the area.
Cimatu's remarks came a day after it was learned
that US spy planes and other high technology equipment were being used in the
Balikatan 02-1 joint military exercise. The 160-strong US Special Forces
contingent for the Balikatan is backed by American P-3C Orion spy planes and
other high technology surveillance equipment.
Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio, co-director for Balikatan 02-1, however, said the
training was aimed at improving the capability of Filipino soldiers, not the
release of the Burnhams. Malacañang on Friday asked the Visiting Forces
Agreement Commission to monitor and make sure that US soldiers stayed out of
trouble during the exercises.
Presidential spokesperson Rigoberto Tiglao said the VFACOM should monitor every
phase of the six-month long Balikatan exercise and inform the public of any
incursions. The VFACOM said Friday it would form local monitoring councils (LMCs)
in Cebu, Zamboanga City and Basilan where the US soldiers are based. The LMCs
would monitor the Americans' activities outside the exercise sites,
"particularly during their rest and recreation activities and civil-military
activities."
The LMCs would also see to it that places frequented by US military and civilian
personnel are secure. The VFACOM will organize an ad hoc oversight committee to
"review daily developments" in the Balikatan. It will also set up "action
centers," manned by foreign affairs and defense department officers, in
Zamboanga City, Basilan and Cebu to monitor the activities of US personnel
within the exercise sites.
The centers can also act on any complaint involving US personnel within and
outside the exercise sites. Congress, meanwhile, has formed an oversight
committee on the VFA and will begin consultations on the ongoing Balikatan war
exercises on Tuesday.
This was disclosed by Senate foreign relations committee chair Blas Ople who
chairs the committee together with Senate committee on national defense chair
Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Representatives Apolinario Lozada and Prospero Pichay,
their House counterparts.
Militant groups opposed to the Balikatan on Friday denounced US non-government
organizations participating in the Operation Gentle Wind, the so-called social
component of the exercises.
Gerry Albert-Corpuz, spokesperson of the fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, said the
US NGOs "should stop doing the front act for US military intervention and war of
aggression."
The US NGOs in Basilan have started a theater arts project aimed at teaching
acting to Basilan children aged 15 years old and below.
With reports from Martin Marfil, Gerald Lacuarta, Dona Pazzibugan and Rocky
Nazareno
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No long-term US
military
role in Philippines: Admiral
Posted: 0:43 AM (Manila Time) | Mar. 01, 2002
Inquirer News Service
'Not like Vietnam'
WASHINGTON—The top US military commander in the Pacific denied Wednesday that
the anti-terrorism effort in the Philippines was a Vietnam War-like "slippery
slope" that could enmesh American forces in a long-term conflict.
Admiral Dennis Blair, commander in chief of US forces in the Asia-Pacific,
praised the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for its security
cooperation with Washington, but warned that the war against the Abu Sayyaf
would "not be won by military operations alone."
"Improvements in law
enforcement, intelligence, economics, business, information, media, academia,
community leadership and religion will have enduring and important roles in the
battle," he said.
Testifying before the US House of Representatives' international relations
committee, Blair said US assistance to Philippine troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf
was being run within strict bounds and would not spill over to target the
secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
"Our program in the Philippines is of an entirely different character" than the
US role in Vietnam, said Blair, who is retiring soon.
But the fact that the operation has "pretty tight" bounds and that the
Philippine government is committed to economic development in Mindanao "make me
think this is not a slippery slope that we're starting down," he said.
"The time line we have is months, not years," he added.
Blair also asked the US Congress for 5,000 more counter-terrorism experts and
recommended that lawmakers lift restrictions on military cooperation with
violence-torn Indonesia.
In a sweeping overview of the security situation in the region, Blair promised
an assertive strategy to protect US interests and combat the terrorist threat
wherever it existed.
"We cannot provide adequate protection to our citizens and our forces while only
playing defense," he told two House of Representatives subcommittees handling
Pacific, Asian and Middle Eastern Affairs.
But he pointed out that the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington and the
subsequent anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, the Philippines and
elsewhere had created new manpower requirements.
"Over 5,000 additional billets are needed to address the full range of force
protection, antiterrorism, and counter-terrorism missions throughout (the US
Pacific Command)," he said.
The new counter-terrorism experts will participate in increased shore and harbor
security patrols, according to Blair. They will also ensure security at foreign
ports and airfields used by the US military, man round-the-clock regional
command and control facilities, and take part in crisis action teams.
Blair made the request as Washington sent to the Philippines six more military
helicopters and a team of aviation experts to boost the US military presence in
the southern part of the country.
More money
Also on Wednesday, US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the Pentagon
needed a big budget increase next year to keep up the war on terrorism that had
expanded from Afghanistan to the Philippines and now appeared to be moving to
Georgia.
"We've got to have the same staying power for this conflict as your generation
did in World War II," Wolfowitz told the US Senate appropriations subcommittee
on defense, which includes three decorated veterans of that war.
"We are trying to fight a
war on terrorism and prepare our forces for any conflict that may come a decade
from now," Wolfowitz said in defense of the Bush administration's request for a
defense budget of 379 billion dollars for 2003, some 48 billion dollars more
than in 2002.
Asked about a proposal for a "flexibility fund" of 10 billion dollars, on which
several senators had expressed concern, Wolfowitz said the purpose of the money
was "to continue the kind of operation we are conducting at the same levels as
today." He did not give details.
The Pentagon plans to send between 45 and 200 troops to Georgia to help train
its military amid concerns over a burgeoning al-Qaeda presence in the Pankisi
Gorge, a haven used by Chechen rebels, a senior US military official said
Wednesday.
But at least one senator, Robert Byrd, did not seem impressed with Wolfowitz's
arguments.
"What I see here seems to be an expanding agenda," Byrd said, adding: "There's
no end in sight of our mission in Afghanistan ... Look at the Philippines ...
look at Colombia ... Iraq ... and so on and so on and so on. If we expect to
kill every terrorist in the world, that's going to keep us going beyond
doomsday. How long can we afford this?"
Wolfowitz replied that the United States did not want "a long-term continued
presence" in Afghanistan.
But "I can't tell you when we will have won," he said.
The US government began sending advisers to Vietnam in the 1960s, eventually
increasing its combat troop presence to fight a full-fledged war alongside the
South against the communist North.
Ultimately, the United States was forced to withdraw its forces from Vietnam,
and Saigon fell to the North in 1975.
As many as 660 elite US troops have been deployed for joint exercises with the
Philippine military aimed at crushing the Abu Sayyaf, which has been holding
hostages including a US missionary couple and a Filipino nurse in Basilan.
The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda
network, alleged masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
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Army Helicopter Crashes in Philippines With 10 Americans Aboard
Friday, February 22, 2002
WASHINGTON
— A U.S. Army transport helicopter with 10 Americans aboard crashed at sea in
the Philippines Thursday, and all aboard were feared killed. No survivors were
found in hours of searching after the crash, lowering hopes of retrieving anyone
alive from the water. Both U.S. and Philippine military forces were searching
the southern Philippines waters.
Earlier, a senior Philippine Air Force officer told Reuters that at least two people were rescued from the wreckage, but a senior U.S. military source later denied the report. The helicopter wasn't brought down in an attack, officials from both countries said. "There was no hostile ground fire," Philippine military spokesman Lt. Col. Danilo Servando said.
The U.S. Pacific Command said the MH-47E Chinook was carrying eight crew members and two passengers. Officials said earlier that 12 Americans were aboard. Some debris and an oil slick were spotted at the crash site five miles from tiny Apo, a tiny island in the Bohol Sea off the larger island of Negros. Coast Guard Lt. Armand Balilo said searchers found one of the helicopter's rotors.
Apo was transformed into a staging area for the search-and-rescue effort. Some U.S. and Philippine forces involved in the joint exercise were being pulled away to help. "You can understand naturally that our hearts are full of sorrow right now," Maj. Cynthia Teramae, a U.S. spokeswoman for the exercise, said in Zamboanga. "What we are doing is focusing all our attention on the family members." Police said rain was falling and visibility was poor at the time of the crash, but the weather had improved several hours later.
Rodrigo
Alanano, mayor of Dauin town on nearby Negros, said fishermen about two miles
from the crash site told him they saw the chopper burning before impact. "They
saw a helicopter in flames in the air, then it exploded as it fell into the
sea," he said. "They thought it was a meteorite." Annie Omilig, 44, who works at
the Liberty Rhodes beach resort on Apo, said island fishermen also heard the
impact while at sea.
"They saw what looked like lightning, like a fire in the sky that fell into the sea," Omilig said. "They didn't see what it was." Officials said the helicopter had just made three night flights between Zamboanga, a major Philippine military base, and nearby Basilan island, parts of which are a stronghold of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf. The rebels are holding a missionary couple from Kansas and a Filipino nurse.
Along with a second MH-47E, the ill-fated helicopter left Zamboanga shortly after midnight for a two-hour flight to Mactan, an islet near the city of Cebu where the United States has a supply base for the Basilan mission, Servando said. It crashed around 2:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. EST Thursday) in deep water. The second MH-47E conducted an aerial search and was joined by a U.S. Navy P-3 and a U.S. Air Force C-130 airplane, as well as Philippine aircraft and ships.
Col. Alexander Aleo, commander of the Philippine military's 103rd brigade headquarters on Basilan, said "everything looked normal" as the choppers dropped off the last of 160 U.S. special forces and supplies that have been arriving over the last two weeks. The Americans have been operating under extremely tight security, with transport planes landing at night with all of their lights off. Aleo said the two helicopters used a system in which one landed -- never turning off its engines -- while the other hovered above as a defensive measure.
"There was no mechanical trouble reported or any rebel activity that might have affected their flight," Aleo said. Aleo said the American troops monitored developments by radio before deploying Friday morning to outlying military camps from the main military base on Basilan. The U.S. soldiers who arrived overnight were packing bags, cleaning their guns or trying to catch a quick nap.
With its distinctive tandem rotors, the MH-47E is the special forces version of the CH-47 heavy transport helicopter that has been in use since 1962. The U.S. military is believed to have about 25 MH-47E choppers in its arsenal. Last week, a huge C-17 U.S. military transport airplane was grounded when one of its four engines issued flames as it was landing at the Zamboanga military airport. On Tuesday, a U.S. C-130 transport plane underwent repairs there for a brake problem.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
DOD IDENTIFIES MH-47 ACCIDENT SERVICEMEMBERS
The Department of Defense announced that the following Soldiers and Airmen are believed to have been on board the MH-47 aircraft that crashed at sea in the southern Philippines Thursday:
| United States Army: | United States Air Force: | |
| Maj. Curtis D. Feistner | Master Sgt. William L. McDaniel II | |
| Capt. Bartt D. Owens | Staff Sgt. Juan M. Ridout | |
| Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jody L. Egnor | ||
| Staff Sgt. James P. Dorrity | ||
| Staff Sgt. Kerry W. Frith | ||
| Staff Sgt. Bruce A. Rushforth, Jr. | ||
| Sgt. Jeremy D. Foshee | ||
| Spc. Thomas F. Allison | ||
The eight U.S. Army soldiers are members of
the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Fort Campbell, Ky. The two U.S.
Air Force airmen are assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Group, Kadena Air
Base, Japan.
A final determination on the status of these individuals has not yet been made. Search and rescue efforts continue with the U.S. working closely with the Philippine navy and coast guard units. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
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Grisly video latest weapon in Philippines war MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine
government has released a gruesome videotape of alleged guerrillas beheading
captured soldiers. The decision was made by the government in an
attempt to bolster support for a U.S. military training exercise aimed at wiping
out a Muslim extremist group, the Abu Sayyaf. Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan
said Tuesday the videotape was seized last year at an Abu Sayyaf camp on Basilan
island. U.S. Special Forces are on Basilan to observe
Filipino troops hunting the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who have been holding an
American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse hostage for nearly nine months.
The poor-quality tape -- compiled over several
months in late 1994 and early 1995 -- was aired late Monday by at least two
Philippine television networks. One showed the graphic footage complete; the
other blurred the beheadings. "It's to show to the public the real face of
the enemy because what we've seen in the past weeks ... has been that some
sectors would rather forget the real reason behind our intensified campaign
against this terrorist group," Capco told The Associated Press news agency. "What the tape has shown is the enemy is not
human at all."
Repeated hackings Adan said parts of the tape were used by the
rebels "to gather financial support" in the Middle East through an al-Qaida
connection. One scene showed rebel casualties, including a man with his jaw
smashed by a bullet and a woman being treated by a guerrilla medic. Another scene shows an alleged guerrilla
hacking a man lying on the ground four times on the neck with a large,
wide-bladed knife while several others watch. In another, a guerrilla in camouflage comes
from behind a sitting, blindfolded man, his hands tied behind his back, and
hacks him on the neck. The man does not fall immediately and the guerrilla hacks
him again. The video also showed the soldier being asked
his name and how many Muslims and Christians he has killed. The soldier was told
to recite the "Our Father" prayer before the guerrilla beheaded him. Adan said the beheadings followed a clash with
the Abu Sayyaf in January 1995 in which nine soldiers and two government
militiamen were killed. Critics wary of U.S. motive At the time, he said, the Abu Sayyaf was known
to have maintained links with the al-Qaida terrorist network. About 660 U.S. soldiers, including 160 Special
Forces members, will be involved in the exercise in the southern Philippines.
Only Special Forces are to visit combat zones
and will be armed only for self-defense. The Abu Sayyaf seized dozens of hostages in a
rampage starting last May. Some escaped and others were released, reportedly for
ransoms. Others were killed, including Guillermo Sobero of Corona, California,
who was beheaded. Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kansas,
and Basilan nurse Deborah Yap, are the last hostages still in Abu Sayyaf hands.
About 5,000 Filipino soldiers have been on
Basilan in a rescue operation. But the guerrillas, estimated to number about 80
on the island, have eluded them for nearly nine months. Critics say the training exercise is a cover
for actual combat operations by the Americans to rescue the American hostages,
violating Philippine constitutional restrictions on the presence and activities
of foreign troops on sovereign soil. The left-wing New Patriotic Alliance said in a
statement that showing the videotape was a "desperate attempt to legitimize U.S.
military presence in the country," adding it need not be convinced that the Abu
Sayyaf is "utterly despicable and should be wiped out completely."
Oh, This Shark Has Missing Teeth, Dear
People are billiards-crazy here in Nita's
snack shop and pool hall, with its plates of cold fried fish and shelves of
cigarettes, beer and canned mackerel. There is billiards on television, too, a
replay of a championship match last November. "The Maestro," announces the
commentator. "He is showing in the final just why he is one of the sport's
greatest players. Truly, he is a magician." Wait! It's the same funny-looking man on
television — the same mussed-up hair, the same hopeless little mustache, the
same goofy grin: Efren Reyes, maybe the world's best pool player at the moment
and the biggest money winner in the sport. Men in T-shirts stare up at his image on the
television screen, but Mr. Reyes is unimpressed. "Well, I know already what will
happen," he says. O.K., but still, how does it feel to be the
Maestro, to be at the top of the world? How does it feel to be so good that
nobody in the Philippines will play against you?
In the space of eight days last November, Mr.
Reyes, 47, won two of the biggest billiards championships in the world, in
Warsaw and Tokyo, taking home from the second match the richest prize in the
sport: $160,000. On television he looks cold and dangerous,
his eyes narrowed as he calculates his shots. He has the eerie genius of a
chess player, visualizing the lay of the balls not just two or three shots
ahead but 10 or 15. But here in his sister's shop, in his
denim shorts and slippers, he looks like just another loafer, tucking the
front of his dirty T-shirt under his belt as he begins to play.
February 19, 2002 Posted: 7:18 PM HKT (1118
GMT)
U.S. Special Forces and their
Filipino counterparts on patrol in Isabela town, Basilan island
February 16, 2002
THE SATURDAY PROFILE
By SETH MYDANS
NGELES
CITY, the Philippines -- In the back of a dim two-table pool hall behind the bus
station, a funny-looking man with no front teeth is practicing trick shots with
his cronies. The yellow one-ball flies through the air and bounces along the
concrete floor: a miss. "Wow!" the man cries, and he throws back his head and
laughs.
MR. REYES leans his cue
against the dirty green wall and looks around at his friends and their squat
brown bottles of San Miguel beer. "I feel," he says, "oh, like a big man!"
He raises both fists into the air. "Yee-hee!"
"You want to have a contest eating hot soup with him?" asks a friend, Rico Bautista. "He'll beat you. Nobody can beat him."
Mr. Reyes is proud of that championship, too. But it's the silvery fried fish he likes best. "Boy, you eat this one, you play pool good," he says, dipping a morsel into vinegar and chili, then wiping his hands on his pants.
He has another formula for winning. "If I'm playing tomorrow," he says, "I don't drink for one day." Also, for the length of a tournament — his private superstition — he stays away from the shower.
It is not the first time Mr. Reyes has seemed to be two different people.
In 1985, when nobody outside the Philippines knew him, he went to the United States to hustle money in betting games. In Houston he played under the name of a friend, Cesar Morales. In Las Vegas he was Efren Reyes again. When he went home 21 days later, he said, he and his backers had earned $81,000 and everybody in America knew who he was.
Or they thought they knew. Some said Cesar Morales was the hot new player. Some said Efren Reyes. The disputes became fierce, he said, until people realized they had been snookered by the same fellow.
It was on another trip to the United States that he finally rid himself of those awful nuisances, his false front teeth. He had lost the real ones, one by one, when dentists decided it was easier to pull than drill.
"Used to be I got teeth," said Mr. Reyes, explaining the gap beneath his upper lip. "In June 1995, when I'm going to the United States for a tournament, the stewardess brings me beef. When I eat the beef, my teeth go out and the people around me, everyone is laughing." So he went to the toilet and flushed them down the drain, a great relief.
Mr. Reyes was 8 years old when he discovered the wonders of the game in the Manila pool hall owned by his uncle, the most prosperous member of a rural family that had never had the luxury of an extra peso.
"I watched my uncle play, and I saw people giving him money," Mr. Reyes said. "I liked that." He climbed onto a drink carton and started learning shots. No one taught him; he watched, he imitated, he began to win.
TO hear him tell his tales, it is hustling that has given him his greatest pleasures, a skill he began to perfect as a boy, beating all comers at his uncle's tables.
He says he loves that slow, dawning moment when people realize that they have been had and that their money is in his pocket.
"Sometimes I meet a good player and he's hustling me, too," Mr. Reyes said with a grin. "He's stalling. I'm stalling. I don't want to show my speed."
He spent his best pool years — between 18 and 24 — in lucrative obscurity. Then he suffered the worst fate the game can deliver to a hustler: he became famous.
"There's this guy coming down from the mountains in Asia who can beat any American player," he heard them saying. "What's the name? The name is Efren Reyes."
So he quit billiards and took up a pool hall variation called carom ball until he became too good at that to find any takers. "No more way to hustle," he said. "They all know me. Even in the mountains with no electricity."
Almost as a last resort, he turned to international tournament play in 1985, at the age of 30. Even though his best years were behind him, he rose to the top.
This was a boon to his family, friends and hangers-on. In the Philippine tradition, Mr. Reyes said, he is now supporting more than 40 people — and still living among the chickens and fighting cocks at his family's rural home.
In the limelight now, he earned a new nickname, the Magician, for his ability to visualize and execute extraordinary shots that took spectators by surprise. "With my experience I can see every shot," he said. "If I'm in good condition, I can make it."
He is also a disciplined player. Always take the easy shot, he said. "I can make the hard shots, but not every time. Better to take the top shot."
Like other great champions, he has another driving quality: he hates to lose.
It can be a little irritating to his friends. "When we are playing mah-jongg, you will notice that if he is losing he will be in a bad mood," said Lito Sagmit, a driver at a local casino. "He will throw the bricks. He'll say, `Here, take my seat.' "
Sometimes, before a big match, Mr. Reyes has a horrible dream. He dreams that he is losing. "So the next day at the tournament I concentrate so that will not happen," he said. "I concentrate because I'm scared to lose."
And if his awful dream comes true and he does lose, he said, "I feel ashamed."
"I get mad at myself," he said. "Gee, what went wrong with me? How could I lose? I don't really accept that I lose. I am thinking, `Next time, next time I got you.' "
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Bar ban for Bangkok women
February 15, 2002 Posted: 4:28 AM EST (0928 GMT)
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BANGKOK, Thailand -- Women arriving at a Bangkok bar without a man may face being turned away, or worse still, arrested. Thai police have invoked 40-year-old legislation that will allow bars to refuse women -- either arriving alone or with their female friends -- from entering.
Police in the Thai capital have sent letters to owners of entertainment venues setting out existing regulations and reactivating the antiquated law aimed at curbing prostitution, The Nation newspaper reported on Thursday.
"We're looking on a case-by-case basis, but at some bars and discos, if we think something will happen with women by themselves, we'll give a warning," police spokesman Pongsapat Pongcharoen told Reuters news agency.
"We're looking at the bars which have women going in to get men customers and going out to have sex." The bar clampdown follows in the wake of a controversial social order campaign introduced by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year.
The campaign is seeking to crack down not only on prostitution, but on illegal weapons and under-age drinking. As part of that campaign, the government enforced the early closure of bars and other venues across Thailand, winning them widespread public support.
'Come for fun'
But the bar ban has outraged women's rights activists who say the law is outdated, sexist and impossible to implement fairly.
"How will police decide if we come for fun or sell sex, how can they define it," Surang Janyam of Empower, a group representing women workers in the entertainment industry, said to Reuters news agency.
"Anyway, men are the ones who come to bars to find women, not other way around." Her opinion has been echoed by other activists.
"This is the biggest joke I have ever heard," Women's Rights Protection Center spokeswoman Supensri Puengkoksoong told The Nation newspaper.
"People just want to relax in such places and the government is treating them as if they all are criminals. Doesn't the gender equity clause in the constitution mean anything to the government?"
Human Rights Commissioner Naiyana Supapueng has also slammed the directive as discriminatory, telling the daily that she would raise it with her panel if any women were arrested.
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'We're Here to Help the Philippines'
U.S. commander tells TIME that America will play a support
role in the war on Abu Sayyaf
BY
PHIL ZABRISKIE/ZAMBOANGA
Friday, Feb.
08, 2002
Col. David Fridovich calls himself a "quiet professional." But after 26 of years military, he's finding himself in the spotlight as the Army Special Operations Commander for Joint Task Force 510. That translates as the officer in charge of U.S. forces in the Philippines, deployed to help that country's army fight terrorism. The immediate enemy is Abu Sayyaf, a splinter faction of the wider Muslim secessionist movement in the southern Philippines. Years of fighting the Philippine military has reduced it to a group of around 80 fighters, mostly engaged in kidnapping and other forms of banditry. They currently hold three foreign hostages, two of them American. The hot, thick jungles have made it hard to eliminate Abu Sayyaf altogether. But the Philippine military has also been accused of mismanagement and corruption.
Now, the Americans have arrived to help. Special Forces personnel will soon begin patrolling Basilan island along with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Carrying only side arms, they're there as observers to guide the AFP to victory. Col. Fridovich spoke with TIME last week at AFP Southern Command headquarters.
TIME: When will U.S. personnel begin joining their Philippine counterparts on patrol?
Col. Fridovich: We anticipate starting work with our counterparts by about the end of February, maybe a little bit earlier. We're only going to have about 160 advisers over on (Basilan). This is a training exercise, but we've got to face it a bit differently because this is the first time that the training has been done in a combat zone. There's no exclusions to it in terms of where we go and what we do, except that it's Philippine-led and we advise, consult and assist them as they require. There's some added risk because they're in a combat situation, but what we're trying to do is mitigate those risks.
How do you mitigate risk?
You figure out your constraints and limitations, you figure out the things you must do, you figure out what you can't do. Understanding the operational environment — we call it plugging in — the intelligence, the battlefield, everything from the terrain to the weather to politics in some situations. That's something pretty unique to Special Operations Forces anyway — being aware of the political environment. And the enemy. We put that all together and figure out how we can optimize their loss and minimize our risk. Once you figure how you want to do it, you train, you rehearse, and then you say, okay, let's go try it.
Do the advisers have specific experience in this type of thick jungle terrain?
First Special Forces group is theater-apportioned to the Pacific. Quite a few of the guys have a Philippine interest. They've studied the Philippines; they've worked here before. I've been coming here personally off and on since 1985. That's routine. Some of the teams won't be specific to the Philippines, so they might have had recent experiences in Thailand or somewhere else in Southeast Asia.
Is there a decision before committing forces that the risk of casualties is acceptable?
Yeah, there is. We were told, "You're going to go there, and the reason you're going to go there is that you all are built for accepting that risk and mitigating it down to the lowest level," which I guess we are. We're older guys, you can tell — I'm not making fun of myself — but we are older guys. The junior guys on the teams is a staff sergeant who's got, at a minimum, six years in the Army and probably more, maybe eight to ten years before he even comes to us. Our guys have more maturity, more experience. They have theater and regional orientation, country-specific orientation, and that's what decision-makers take into account before saying we'll go forward. It's not a unilateral decision, either. You've also got to go back to the Philippine government and work through those issues. And we're still working through some of those issues, but I'm real confident that we're going to go.
Locally, some people have charged mismanagement in Philippine Army operations, or even collusion with the Abu Sayyaf rebels. It seems you're entering into a contract with a group that is facing some serious accusations. They've denied those accusations, but does that in any way affect your preparation?
I understand there's a legitimacy question. I'm not concerned about it. And I'm not in any way trained to assess that. What I'm trained to assess and help them work through, is their military skills and the application of those skills.
Is the U.S. going to war in the Philippines?
No. Everything we're going to be doing is going to be in a support role. The situation here persisted before our global war on terror heated up. We're going to do what we can. It's their country, their sovereign territory. We're going to give them added or enhanced skills and application of what they already have to go ahead and take care of the situation by themselves. It's not anything unilateral. I want to clear up that misconception. There's nothing unilateral here at all, because it's not our country.
Are conditions on Basilan conducive to tackling Abu Sayyaf?
There is some popular support (for Abu Sayyaf) there. You might have a support system in excess of a couple hundred throughout the entire island. That's going to be a big challenge. That's not just a military answer; there's a civil-military piece to this whole thing. If a guy grows a crop and takes it across a mountain, and he takes it to market and he sells it, but coming back from the sale he gets robbed, and the government can't do anything to protect him, then there's a problem. So what we want to do is look at the bigger picture and say, okay, how do you stop all those things? You're always going to have bandits in this part of the world, just like we have bandits in our part of the world. You've got to project power, you've got to project presence, you've got to project peace. The people have to believe the government is doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Speculation here is that if things go well against Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, the next target may be other members of the group in Jolo, or Moro Liberation Front guerrillas in Mindanao or even the communist New People's Army insurgents in Luzon…
That will be for the political decision makers to decide. From a military perspective, if we've given them an enhanced capability, they should be able to go ahead and do it on their own. It's teaching a guy how to catch a fish rather than just giving him a fish. I think they prefer us to come in and give them what they need to do the job themselves, and then move on.
If we're doing our job, you won't see anything. It's nothing sinister; it's just that it's real quiet. We are quiet professionals. This is very counterintuitive for us, to even do (interviews) except that we need to tell the press what's going on. There's nothing going on here except what we're talking about.
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$100M US aid gives Scout Rangers hope
Posted: 2:06 AM (Manila Time) | Feb. 03, 2002
Inquirer News Service
Ill-equipped, low pay
CABUNBATA RANGER CAMP, Basilan - Twenty-six elite soldiers snake stealthily into a skirmish line, then open fire at three gunmen approaching through chest-high ferns. The machine-gunner yells "rat-tat-tat" as riflemen grunt in staccato, aiming unloaded rifles at buddies posing as Abu Sayyaf bandits for the exercise.
Welcome to the forward base and training camp of the renowned Philippine Scout Rangers in the Basilan jungle - a maze of bamboo huts, hammocks and laundry lines echoing with crows from dozens of fighting cocks. Unfortunately, the country's elite military unit can't afford blanks during training. In battle, the frontline troops use 30-year-old radios, drive 20-year-old jeeps and rely on informants who walk for hours or days to report enemy sightings.
The combat veterans - among 1,200 Filipino soldiers to be trained by US Special Forces in the coming months - hope counter-terrorism classes and a 100-million-dollar US military aid package will change all that. About 660 US soldiers are to teach Filipino soldiers how to better fight the Abu Sayyaf group, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, and rescue American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham from eight months in captivity.
Even so, the Rangers reckon the Americans can also learn a few things from their experience at the frontline. About 220 American soldiers are already in Western Mindanao for "Balikatan 02-1," the controversial RP-US training exercise that formally began Thursday. The rest of the US troops are to arrive over the next few weeks. Some will teach night helicopter flying and other specialized skills. About 160 US Special Forces in full battle gear will also accompany the Philippine Scout Rangers and other units into combat zones. But the Americans will be allowed to fire back at the enemy in self-defense.
"We have all the combat experience any commander could want," says Capt. Montano Almodovar, who has spent five of his 29 years fighting guerrillas. "But they (Americans) have more high-tech equipment than we do. That is the help we need." That desire is shared by the 700 Scout Rangers at the forward base, who are saddled not only with the lack of proper military equipment but also a bad image.
Philippine officers have been accused of making deals with the ransom-rich Abu Sayyaf, particularly after the bandits mysteriously escaped from a hospital that was surrounded by soldiers last June. The Rangers are also accused of human rights abuses and alienating locals, sometimes allegedly beating and killing prisoners. But poor equipment - along with the dense, rugged Basilan jungle--helps explain why 7,000 Filipino soldiers haven't eliminated the less than 100 Abu Sayyaf bandits on an island measuring roughly 25 by 40 km. "They can eavesdrop on our radios. Even our telephone calls," Almodovar says of the Abu Sayyaf, which reportedly used multimillion-dollar ransoms from kidnapping tourists two years ago to buy better guns, speedboats and high-tech gear.
WWII vintage
In contrast, the Rangers only have four sets of night-vision goggles and one grenade launcher per 80-man company, according to Almodovar. For mobility, the Rangers depend on World War II-era jeeps that are maintained by innovative mechanics. They also have to make do with meager pay. An enlisted man receives a starting salary of only 7,000 pesos a month while an officer gets about 18,000 pesos.
A dire need for helicopters keeps wounded soldiers waiting in the jungle for hours, if not days. With no satellite monitors, Rangers rely on informants who report enemy sightings by hiking to the nearest base or camp, allowing the bandits time to move or stage an ambush. In such combat situations, even the single sleek US speedboat anchored near the American barracks in Zamboanga City, about 20 km from Basilan, can make a difference.
When the Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnapped 17 Filipinos and three Americans from Palawan's Dos Palmas beach resort last May 27, their double-engine volvo speedboat easily left the pursuing Philippine Navy vessel behind. The Abu Sayyaf later beheaded several hostages, including Guillermo Sobero of Corona, California. The rest were released after reportedly paying ransom.
Secretly trained
The Philippine Light Reaction Company, made up of former Rangers trained secretly by US Special Forces last year, is relatively better equipped than other military units. Members of the Light Reaction Company don Motorola walkie-talkies with headsets, new rifle-mounted grenade launchers, thermal imagers and other cutting-edge equipment. But the company can only afford to keep a few men in combat for more than a few weeks at a time.
Reports of US air surveillance that can detect body heat through solid rock boosts the confidence of 25-year-old Ranger Lt. Elvino Rivera. "We could wipe out the Abu Sayyaf now if we had the same equipment as the Americans," says Rivera, whose fresh face and braces offset a harder look from five battles in eight months.
"But, in combat, the Americans can learn something from us too," he adds. His friends attest to his 24 confirmed kills in five years of fighting. Few, if any, US military units have the combat experience of the Philippine Scout Rangers, a regiment of 1,700 or so fighting for decades. Training is so savage it shocks US observers. It is considered acceptable that 6 percent of Ranger candidates die. Month four of training ends with a shooting test. Each trainee must shoot two water bottles out of his buddy's hands from 25 meters. "We've had some accidents," Rivera says. Month five starts with a patrol that ends only when recruits find and fight guerrillas.
Will to fight
Countering claims that the Philippine military lacks the will to fight, Ranger Maj. Charlie Galvez seeks to reassure Americans. "(Abu Sayyaf leader) Abu Sabaya has killed 14 of my men," the camp commander says. "It's personal now." In an interview with the US broadcasting network CBS in New York, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also assured the American public that the Philippine military was doing its best to rescue the Burnhams.
"Nearly 50 soldiers have been killed trying to rescue them," Ms Macapagal said. She said the training exercise would be beneficial to both sides. Some members of the US contingent in Mindanao acknowledge that they have been learning a lot from Filipinos not only at the frontline but also in the medical field. Lt. Col. John Andreshak, an orthopedic soldier of the 59th Medical Wing of the Lockland Air Force Base in Texas said that Filipino military doctors based at the Southern Command headquarters in Zamboanga City had taught him about the treatment of tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue.
Reports by Tony Bergonia in New York, and Julie S. Alipala and Anthony S.Allada, Inquirer News Service, PDI Mindanao Bureau, and the Inquirer wires.
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