- MANILA (Reuters) - A political storm over the role of U.S. forces in
the Philippines' war against Muslim extremists intensified Sunday after
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo slammed those opposing American help
as "lovers of terrorists."
-
- Leaders from both sides of politics expressed
outrage on Sunday at Arroyo's remarks and said late dictator Ferdinand
Marcos seemed more measured than the current president.
-
- Arroyo, an admirer of Britain's "Iron
Lady," former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has denounced those
who oppose her decision to accept U.S. help in vanquishing the Abu Sayyaf
guerrillas as "a protector of terrorists, an ally of murderers and
an Abu Sayyaf lover."
-
- "You are not a Filipino if you are
against peace...You love the terrorists more than your own soldiers,"
Arroyo told a news conference Friday in her strongest attack yet on her
critics.
-
- More than 400 American soldiers have
arrived in the Philippines for military exercises aimed at upgrading Filipinos'
skills in fighting the Abu Sayyaf.
-
- A separate group of 160 U.S. special
forces troops are to join local soldiers in patrols on the southern island
of Basilan, where the Abu Sayyaf has been holding an American missionary
couple hostage for over eight months.
-
- The United States has linked the Abu
Sayyaf to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, alleged masterminds
of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
-
- Critics said the U.S. military presence
violated the Philippine constitution, which bars foreign troops from operating
in the country, unless under a treaty.
-
- Officially, the Americans will only train
Filipinos. But they will be armed and can fire in self-defense if attacked,
and a U.S. Air Force general supervising the American troops has said his
men know they could be killed or wounded on Basilan.
-
- "No president of the Philippines
had ever dared to say that any Filipino who happens to disagree with the
president is not a Filipino," Senator Joker Arroyo, a member of the
ruling coalition but no relation to the president, said in a statement.
"Not even Marcos denied any of his opponents their birthright."
-
- Opposition Senator Edgardo Angara said
Arroyo's statements were "reckless," while independent congresswoman
Etta Rosales condemned them as "the height of arrogance."
-
- Analysts said Arroyo's remarks could
further inflame an already heated political atmosphere marked by nearly
daily protests by leftist groups against the U.S. presence.
-
- Presidential aides said a recent survey
showed more than 80 percent of Filipinos backed Arroyo's decision.
-
- "You have to realize that the president
is not going to back down from a fight, specially when she knows that she
has public opinion on her side...But this could boomerang," political
commentator Manuel Quezon III said on local television.
-
- Pro-administration Senator Loren Legarda
said: "At the end of the day, what is important here is everybody
loves a winner. If within six months, this problem brought by the Abu Sayyaf
is solved, everyone will be happy," Legarda said. "Nothing succeeds
like success."
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited.
All rights reserved.
|
