RP to press U.S. on pledge to help fight terrorists

RP to press U.S. on pledge to help fight terrorists

Agencies, Manila

Manila will ask Washington for the immediate delivery of helicopters, patrol boats and rifles to help fight Moro militants when U.S. President George W. Bush visits on Saturday, the Philippine defense chief said.

Washington, which has designated its closest security partner in Southeast Asia a major non-NATO ally, has pledged to provide Manila with more than US$30 million in hardware and training.

"Our government will thank but remind U.S. President Bush about the military equipment he had promised because we really need those things to effectively fight terrorists," Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said on Tuesday.

He said the Philippine military lacked mobility and firepower to eliminate threats from the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf in the troubled southern Philippines.

"We have an immediate need of vital equipment that will boost the effectiveness of the armed forces," said a draft document prepared by the defense department, outlining points for talks between Bush and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

"Foremost is the dire need of helicopters."

Twenty second-hand UH-1H helicopters, a Cyclone-class patrol boat and 30,000 M-16A1 assault rifles were promised when Arroyo met Bush at the White House in May.

An additional 10 helicopters in the form of spare parts and a refurbished C-130 Hercules transport plane were included in the security package, Ermita said.

Bush has also pledged $30 million to develop war-torn areas of the southern island of Mindanao once Manila strikes a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group.

Manila is expected to get further access to U.S. military equipment and supplies after Washington named the Philippines on Oct. 6 as a major non-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ally.

"This provides the legal foundation for broadening U.S. military and security aid to the Philippines," the defense paper said. "This will be our ticket to better security."

But a source in the defense department told Reuters that Manila could not expect to get new military hardware, even after it won the coveted "major ally" tag.

The source said experts from the U.S. Pacific Command who had audited the Philippine military's capabilities did not recommend "acquiring additional platforms".

"The experts team suggested that we focus more on improving our logistics system, paying more attention to spares and other maintenance cases," the defense source said.

Separately, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday denied allegations the country's top terror suspect was executed in cold blood to present a publicity coup ahead of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit.

Opposition politicians have reacted with anger and skepticism to government claims Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) bombmaker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi was killed in a shoot-out with the security forces on southern Mindanao island late on Sunday.

But Arroyo remained defiant: "I stand by the operational report of the authorities on this case," she said.

Some opposition figures have alleged Indonesian Al-Ghozi was killed to prevent him revealing police complicity in his embarrassing escape from the national police headquarters jail in Manila in July.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel said: "It looks like al-Ghozi and others before him were silenced to prevent them from spilling the beans on the authorities who made their escape possible."

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Tuesday said there was no independent confirmation of the death of Al-Ghozi.

"We only have the information provided to us by the Philippines," Downer told commercial radio. "We don't have any independent way of verifying this information."