U.S. and RP say they remain antiterror allies

U.S. and RP say they remain antiterror allies

Agence France-Presse, Manila

The United States and the Philippines insisted on Friday that they remained allies against global terrorism after quarreling over Manila's military pullout from Iraq under pressure from kidnappers there.

Washington and 31 allies which maintain troops in Iraq declared this week that they had adopted a tough common policy of unequivocally rejecting terrorism and refusing to bow to any demands made by kidnappers.

This is widely seen here as amounting to a declaration that the Philippines is no longer a part of the coalition.

The U.S. embassy here said that while Washington was "disappointed" by the Filipino pullout last month, "we are continuing to cooperate in a variety of ways in the global war against terrorism.

"The Philippines remains an ally -- one with whom we have a long-standing shared history and many common interests including defeating terrorism in the region," the statement added.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Delia Albert said in a statement that her office has made consultations with the U.S. embassy here over the latest U.S. declaration.

The mission clarified that it "was not intended to mean that the countries that supported the principles and objectives of the coalition and who contribute to the rebuilding of Iraq but who have no troops in Iraq are no longer considered as part of the coalition," Albert said.

Earlier on Friday, President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Manila "will continue to carry out our campaign against terrorism."

He reiterated that Arroyo had "no apologies" for her decision last month to pull out the 51-man Philippine military contingent from Iraq as demanded by a group of Iraqi militants holding Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz hostage.

"If this is the price to pay for being a Filipino and for leading the Filipino nation, so be it," Bunye said in a statement.

"There are other, perhaps more meaningful ways to sustain and strengthen our strategic relationship with the United States," Bunye said, adding that the two close allies would always work together in "propelling the common commitment to fight terrorism domestically, regionally and worldwide."