The United States has announced plans to deploy 1,750 American soldiers to the southern Philippines later this month in a joint exercise with the Philippine armed forces to combat Abu Sayyaf rebels. The mission, the largest of several American military deployments to the Philippines in the past year, represents the latest theater in America’s war against terrorism.
Under the arrangement, the Pentagon plans to deploy 350 special-operation troops – mostly Green Berets – to the island of Jolo in Sulu province. The plan calls for a further 400 support personnel and an additional 1,000 marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to complement the special forces. The marines are to be equipped with Cobra helicopters and Harrier planes and be based aboard two amphibious navy assault ships, the USS Essex and the USS Fort Henry.
A 20-member American military contingent met with about 100 of their Philippine counterparts at an army base in the southern city of Zamboanga on Feb. 23 to inaugurate the 10-month joint mission. The decision to send American soldiers to the archipelago follows last year’s deployment of some 1,200 US troops to the island of Basilan to train and support Philippine forces. The US-Philippine joint operation on Basilan is credited with having decimated the Muslim extremist group’s ranks, though many fled to the jungles of neighboring Jolo island and only one Abu Sayyaf leader was assassinated. Intelligence sources place Abu Sayyaf’s numbers at up to 400, down from approximately 800 at the start of the incursion.
“The terrorists are still loose. We have to put an end to this menace with finality,” Lieutenant-General Narciso Abaya, the Philippine southern military commander, said at the Zamboanga ceremony.
The Philippines has been engaged in a 34-year struggle against communist and Muslim insurgents but the country’s military has been hampered by a lack of training and funds. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave her approval for the mission to Donald Rumsfeld, the American defense secretary, last month following repeated attacks by Abu Sayyaf, including a bomb attack last October in the southern Philippines that killed three outside a karaoke bar, including an American Green Beret.
The decision to allow American troops to engage in combat on Philippine soil signifies a change in policy for both countries. The Philippine constitution precludes foreign soldiers from assuming combat duties within the country and the US forces will technically serve a supporting and advisory role. Ignacio Bunye, the presidential spokesman, said Mrs Macapagal-Arroyo stressed the exercises would conform to all Philippine laws, including the country’s constitution. Mr Bunye added the government will decline any US request to assume a combat role in the mission and that their function “would be purely training and advisory”.
Last year’s engagement saw American forces restricted to firing only in self-defense. Protesters gathered almost daily outside the US embassy in Manila last year to protest against the American presence in the country.
The two countries have a mutual-defense treaty and signed a Visiting Forces Agreement in 1988, allowing them to engage in large-scale training exercises. But several opposition legislators have threatened to block the maneuvers if Mrs Macapagal-Arroyo or Angelo T. Reyes, the defence secretary, are found to have entered into an extra-constitutional arrangement with the US.
The Philippine-US joint exercise provides the American administration with an opportunity to demonstrate it can fight a war in Iraq and combat terrorists simultaneously, analysts have stated. It also allows the US to re-affirm its anti-terrorism platform.
The American government has placed Abu Sayyaf on its terrorist watchlist. American officials recently claimed a stronger-than-expected link exists between the rebels and other international terrorist outfits.
Abu Sayyaf gained international notoriety for a series of kidnappings beginning in 2000, abducting over 100 individuals and killing 18 of its hostages. Foreigners were freed only after million-dollar ransom demands were met. The organization also claimed responsibility for the bomb attack on Mindanao island last April and is alleged to have links with al Qaeda. The organization’s stated aim is the creation of a pan-Asian Muslim state but they have since degenerated into a kidnap-for-ransom gang. Osama bin Laden sent a brother-in-law to arrange a possible merger of Abu Sayyaf with the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front 10 years ago but the proposed merger never came to fruition.
