Backlash seen for RP as it squeezes out rebels

Backlash seen for RP as it squeezes out rebels

By Cecil Morella

MANILA (AFP): International terrorists could be targeting the
Philippines due to President Joseph Estrada's move to stamp out
Moro extremism in his own backyard, officials and diplomats said
Wednesday after a deadly bomb attack on Manila's envoy to
Indonesia.

Manila placed its foreign embassies and consulates on the
highest state of alert after Tuesday's blast in Jakarta which
killed two people and injured ambassador Leonides Caday and 20
others.

Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said Wednesday the
Philippines' largest Moro separatist group could be involved
despite its denials, and added he has contacted Indonesian and
Malaysian defense officials to come up with a concerted response.

"This would go beyond our border patrol agreements and would
involve strengthening our intelligence tie-ups and preventing
terroristic activities from occurring," he added.

Foreign department spokesman George Reyes said Wednesday
Manila concurs with Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's
theory "that this could be linked to our security problem in
Mindanao," the southern Philippine hotbed of two Moro separatist
rebellions.

"But this could also be the handiwork of indigenous groups in
Indonesia which seek to embarrass President Wahid," Reyes said in
a radio interview.

The bombing of the envoy's residence has given an
international dimension to the Philippine government's 31-year
battle with home-grown communist and Moro separatist
insurgencies.

The Filipino rebels' ties to radical Islamic groups abroad are
well-documented.

"We have no experience of a bombing incident in our embassies
abroad," said Estrada's National Security Adviser Alexander
Aguirre.

Reyes said despite Indonesia's own internal troubles, a "risk
assessment" made on the mission had not anticipated the attack.

Philippines police chief Panfilo Lacson had warned Filipinos
in late June to brace for possible attacks as government forces
battled Moro separatists in Mindanao -- but Manila focussed on
the home front by securing commercial centers and other high-
profile targets.

Foreign diplomats told AFP here the bombing could be linked to
an upsurge in Islamic extremism in Indonesia, Malaysia and the
Philippines.

The rise of armed Islamic separatist movements in the region,
particularly in the vast Indonesian archipelago, has been a
growing concern for the three nations and their seven other
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) partners.

ASEAN ministers and their regional security partners declared
in Bangkok last month that "a united, democratic and economically
prosperous Indonesia was fundamental to the maintenance of
regional security."

Moro Abu Sayyaf rebels based in the southern Philippines
mounted a cross-border raid into the Malaysian island resort of
Sipadan in April and seized 21 western tourists and Asian resort
workers.

More than 100 days later, they continue to hold 14 of them and
a three-member French television crew on Jolo island.

Shortly after the hostage seizure, President Estrada struck
out against the rebels as government forces flushed out the Abu
Sayyaf from Basilan island and seized all territory held by the
larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao.

The two campaigns claimed hundreds of military casualties and
displaced nearly a million civilians. There was also a rebel
backlash as commercial targets were bombed in Manila and
Mindanao.