ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, 25 Agust 2007 — Amid a series of embarrassing setbacks in the government’s campaign against communist rebels and Muslim militants, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday rallied the military to fight back with a view to ending insurgency and terrorism in three years or by the time she steps down in 2010.

“We too will fight back and repel the incursions of insurgency and terrorism. We will not stop until the bandits find no more nook to hide in the land they have blighted and no sanctuary to seek from the people they have terrorized and used as shields,” Arroyo told a peace and security assembly in Bohol island province in the central Philippines yesterday.

In fighting armed rebellion, Arroyo said the government would use “hard and soft power,” or “military might” coupled with continuous development of provinces and provision of social services to the people like education, health benefits, and infrastructure.

“If we are to become a first world country, we have to put a stop to their ideological nonsense and their acts once and for all,” she said. “It is either we get rid of them now, or get rid of them later. Whatever happens, they must be stopped.”

On Thursday, Arroyo visited the troubled southern province of Basilan in a bid to boost the morale of embattled troops, who had sustained two battlefield beatings in the province in a span of 40 days.

On July 10, some 14 Marines were killed in a gunbattle with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters in Basilan Island’s remote town of Al-Barka. Ten of the fallen soldiers were later found decapitated.

Two weeks ago, 27 army soldiers and Marines were killed in clashes with Abu Sayyaf extremists and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas on Jolo Island.

On Aug. 18, Marines who were sent to chase suspects in the decapitation of their 10 colleagues in Basilan engaged Abu Sayyaf rebels in a gunbattle in the town of Ungkaya Pukan town and suffered 15 more deaths. Dozens more soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

Not to be outdone, guerrillas of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas on Wednesday raided the police station in San Isidro town of Davao Oriental province, also in the southern Philippines, and ransacked the armory.

A number of NPA raids of police and military armories have also been reported in the past months in the main southern island of Mindanao.

An alarmed Arroyo said she wanted the Armed Forces of the Philippines “to evolve a strategy of rapid conclusion to address rebellion, with the National Security Council providing policy direction on communist insurgency, Muslim secessionism, and sheer terrorism.”

“But let me be clear on one point. In preaching peace and working for progress, we are not foreclosing our use of our military to protect our people and keep them safe,” she said. And “for those who recognize no other language but force and violence, government will be tough and relentless,” she said.

Arroyo commended the soldiers for defending democracy in all fronts. “A commander-in-chief cannot ask for more from those who have been in the line of fire,” she said.

“But they have earned the right to ask more from me. Without them telling me what they are, I know what they are. We will give it to them, the weapons to win battles and the wherewithal to win the peace,” she added.

During the event, the Bohol local government presented Arroyo a resolution that contained, among others, a call for an amnesty program for communist rebels. Arroyo also directed the National Security Council to meet on this proposal.

Communist rebels have been waging a Maoist insurgency since 1969 followed later by the Muslim rebellion for a separate homeland. The communists suspended peace talks in 2004, accusing the government of instigating their inclusion in US and European terror lists.

The government has opened talks and has a cease-fire agreement with the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (With input from agencies)