RP senator slams 'all-out support' for U.S. attack

RP senator slams 'all-out support' for U.S. attack

MANILA (AFP): Philippine President Gloria Arroyo's all-out
support for an anti-terror coalition led by the United States was
slammed on Sunday, with critics saying she might be putting the
Philippines at risk.

Opposition Senator Gregorio Honasan said that declaration of
war must rest with Congress, not with the Filipino president.

Arroyo on Saturday declared her government would provide
"whatever support is needed and we are capable of doing" for U.S.
President George W. Bush's efforts to build an international
coalition to wage war on terrorists blamed for Tuesday's attacks
in the United States.

Two Filipinos were killed and 115 others were missing from the
attacks, which claimed more than 5,000 lives, officials said.

Arroyo declared a "national day of prayer and solidarity
against terrorism," and attended mass at a Roman Catholic
cathedral in Manila with other top officials. The U.S. embassy
charge d'affaires, Michael Malinowski, also attended the mass.

"We have done all we can. We are proactively preparing for the
evacuation of Filipino overseas workers, our financial managers
are preparing proactively for the backlash," Honasan said over
ABS-CBN television here.

"Beyond that we should rethink carefully our next move,
because this might endanger the lives of our people and affect
our ability to survive any global conflict."

Honasan said offering the U.S. government "whatever we can
afford (by way of humanitarian support is in order, but hosting
any war material that may come as a result of this posturing is
something we (legislators) have to decide."

Manila has a 50 year-old mutual defense treaty with
Washington, however its Senate ended a military basing
arrangement for US forces in the Philippines in 1991.

The 1987 constitution also bars nuclear weapons and nuclear-
armed vessels on Philippine territory.

Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas, said to have links with Osama
bin Laden, the Saudi-born prime suspect in the U.S. attacks, hold
18 hostages in the southern island of Basilan including an
American Christian missionary couple.

"We might provoke those sympathetic to bin Laden here (who
would) bomb metro Manila or elsewhere," University of the
Philippines Asian studies professor Benito Lim told the station.

"We should not commit ourselves to the point of national
suicide."

Honasan said: "We should refine that (Arroyo) statement some
more, make it more categorical."

National Defense College president Clarita Carlos said
Manila's mutual defense pact with Washington did not provide for
automatic retaliation in case of an attack on either partner,
saying the Philippines had the luxury of calibrating its
contribution.

"But if we are really strategic partners of the U.S., then we
should really go all out for it," Carlos told ABS-CBN.

At the memorial service Cardinal Jaime Sin, the archbishop of
Manila, said Filipinos "share in the anguish and sorrow of the
American nation," and "support the American government in its
humane resolve to put an end to this horrendous catastrophe."

But he urged the wronged parties to "let vengeance give way to
healing, anger give way to reconciliation, and death give way to
life."