U.S. to give $55m to southern RP: Arroyo

U.S. to give $55m to southern RP: Arroyo

Agence France-Presse, Cotabato, Philippines

United States President George W. Bush has pledged up to US$55
million in development aid to the troubled southern Philippines,
where economic growth has remained stagnant over years of Muslim
insurgency, President Gloria Arroyo said on Friday.

Arroyo said the main southern island of Mindanao was a top
priority in her discussions with Bush in a state visit to
Washington in November, during which she also received pledges of
military support in her war to crush the Abu Sayyaf group.

"While President Bush expressed support for our campaign
against the Abu Sayyaf, he also said it was important to address
the root of economic and social problems in Mindanao to improve
peace and pursue social development in Muslim communities,"
Arroyo told a press conference while on a visit here.

"Bush announced that his assistance for Mindanao will reach
$55 million," she added.

Separately, the World Bank has also pledged to pump in some
$45 million to the south.

The funds are to go to development projects to be administered
by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a Muslim
self-rule area in Mindanao.

Arroyo on Friday thanked the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) for showing sincerity in peace talks with
Manila and for publicly distancing itself from Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Arroyo, who is visiting the southern Philippines, said she was
also pleased that a cease-fire between the military and the
Muslim separatist MILF has been observed to the letter, but added
that striking a final peace accord with the group would take some
time.

"I am thanking the MILF because of the cease-fire. And not
only that, when (the world faced) international terrorism, the
MILF publicly distanced itself form Osama bin Laden and from the
al-Qaeda network," Arroyo told a news conference in southern
Cotabato city broadcast over government radio.

"We can really see that the future for peace between the
government and the MILF could be reached in the earliest time
possible," she said.

Arroyo said on Friday there is no need for the military brass
to conduct loyalty checks within their ranks despite rumors of an
impending coup,

Rumors of a coup were sparked by the murder this week of a
controversial spokesman of a shadowy military fraternity who had
claimed to have uncovered a plot to destabilize Arroyo's
government.

"The military and police are highly professional, there is no
moral cause for them to be against the government that the
constitution mandated them to protect," Arroyo told a news
conference in Cotabato which was broadcast on government radio in
Manila.

Arroyo said security officials "have been doing their job very
well" and have unmasked "specific individuals that are implicated
in some of these adventurist activities."

She did not give further details, but the president earlier
this week warned coup plotters they would be crushed.

The armed forces on Thursday also ruled out any prospect of a
coup attempt from within their ranks with military spokesman
Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan saying there is "no brewing sentiment
to create trouble."

The assurance came three days after Baron Cervantes, a self-
styled spokesman of the Young Officer's Union (YOU) was gunned
down in Manila.

Cervantes had claimed to have uncovered a plot by some active
and retired military personalities to destabilize the country.

The YOU had been involved in past coup attempts against then-
president Corazon Aquino in the late-1980s but its members
obtained an amnesty as part of a peace accord forged with the
government of Aquino's successor, Fidel Ramos.

The group's leaders this week also publicly disowned
Cervantes, saying he was merely a discharged lieutenant and was
never a spokesman for the group.

Police say his killing may be due to a rift within the YOU but
have not ruled out other motives.