Philippines reassure allies after jailbreak fiasco

Philippines reassure allies after jailbreak fiasco

Cecil Morella, Agence France-Presse, Manila

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday moved to save a
planned visit to her country by U.S. President George W. Bush
after having let one of the world's most dangerous terrorists
escape through appalling police bungling and apparent corruption.

Three days after the escape here of convicted Indonesian
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) bomber Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, the Arroyo
government reassured rattled allies of Manila's resolve to fight
terrorism and said Bush would be safe here when he visits in
October.

Police had admitted on Wednesday that one guard was asleep and
another was out shopping when Al-Ghozi and two Filipino Moro
rebels fled a high security Manila police jail, sparking a
regional security alert. There were no signs of a forced
breakout.

It also emerged on Thursday that police failed to alert Arroyo
about the escape until several hours later.

"While the escape of Al-Ghozi is a regrettable development, it
does not affect plans for the visit of President Bush," Foreign
Secretary Blas Ople said in a statement.

"Substantive and administrative preparations for the visit of
President Bush are in full swing."

The U.S. embassy has assured Manila that "there is not the
slightest hint that the Bush (visit) would not push through,"
Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.

Bush hosted Arroyo on a state visit to the White House in May,
and praised her as an important ally in the global war against
terrorism. He pledged to boost military aid as well as to visit
Manila.

Both the United States and Australia have since publicly
expressed disappointment over the escape of Al-Ghozi, who had
been serving a 17-year prison term for illegally acquiring more
than a ton of explosives in 2000.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday renewed its warning to
U.S. citizens about terrorist threats in the Philippines.

The escape came while key Bush ally John Howard, prime
minister of Australia, was on an official visit here.

"I acknowledge the serious problem of corruption in the police
organization and I am making no excuses for it," Arroyo said
Thursday, vowing to fire top police leaders if they were found
culpable.

"We know that other countries have expressed dismay over this
incident but we'd like to assure them that we're doing our best,"
Arroyo spokesman Bunye told reporters.

"We are a strategic partner of the United States. I don't
think this relationship should be affected by this one single
event. On the contrary, it's time to further strengthen the
alliance between the United States and the Philippines in
fighting terrorism."

Al-Ghozi, convicted last year, confessed that he had used part
of the huge explosives stock to blow up a Manila rail coach and
other targets in December 2000, killing 22 people.

He said he planned to ship the rest to Singapore as part of a
JI plot to blow up Western embassies there.

Police said they discovered the escape mid-morning, as Arroyo
was receiving Howard and obtaining pledges of Australian anti-
terrorism assistance, but only alerted her in the afternoon.

"I'm just saying that she was in Merville (a southern Manila
housing estate) at a little past lunchtime and she was informed
at that point," Bunye said, noting it was mid-afternoon when key
cabinet members learned of the escape.

Canberra has stepped up its security cooperation with Asian
neighbors following the bombings on the Indonesian resort island
of Bali that claimed 202 lives and led to the arrest of many
Indonesian JI suspects behind the attack.