Ramos cancels trip to troubled area

Ramos cancels trip to troubled area

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (DPA): Philippine President Fidel Ramos canceled a visit to a southern island yesterday after extremists threatened to disrupt his arrival and bomb an oil depot.

Tight security had been put in place in Basilan province, some 900 kilometers south of Manila, to thwart any acts of sabotage during Ramos' scheduled cabinet meeting in the capital of Isabela today.

Press Secretary Hector Villaneuva confirmed the visit was scrapped but denied the threats were the reason. He said the trip to the province was merely postponed until February.

Senior Police Superintendent Resurreccion Miravite said the Abu Sayyaf group threatened to disrupt Ramos' arrival and bomb the Caltex depot, the major supplier of gasoline and diesel fuel to Basilan.

The Abu Sayyaf was seeking to retaliate for the refusal of Caltex management to pay 20,000 pesos ($454) per month in "revolutionary taxes," Miravite said.