MANILA, 18 May 2003 -- President Gloria Arroyo yesterday gave the military the go-signal to use aerial and artillery attacks on ''embedded terrorist cells'' that she blamed for recent bombings and other attacks in the southern region of Mindanao.
In a television address just hours before leaving for a state visit to the United States, Arroyo said local governments had been warned of possible reprisal attacks for the crackdown and relief agencies were on alert for a possible surge in evacuees.
''Today I authorize the Armed Forces of the Philippines to employ selective aerial and artillery attacks to dislodge embedded terrorist cells that have attacked hapless civilian communities and murdered scores of innocent Filipinos in Mindanao,'' she said.
''We've decided to use extraordinary punitive force not merely in view of tactical necessity, but to signify the determination of government to bring terrorists to justice.''
A rash of bombings and other attacks in the south, home to a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency, has left more than 210 people dead so far this year.
Arroyo did not specifically name any group that will be targeted, but most of the attacks have been blamed on the main rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose leaders have been charged over recent bombings.
Muslim guerrillas, responding to Arroyo's announcement, said they would escalate attacks if the military intensified their operations.
''If they strike, we'll hit them back correspondingly with the same magnitude on the ground,'' said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu.
The president and her party left for the United States at 10 last night from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Through her state visit, Arroyo said, she hoped to ''bolster our strategic relationship with the United States as well as with our neighbors in the fight against terrorism as we face a new global horizon cast by post-war Iraq.''
She said the government would also reach out to the Organization of Islamic Conference, which is monitoring the peace process in Mindanao, ''to press our principled stand against a common enemy while seeking consensus for the security and welfare of Muslim Filipinos.''
She also said that despite her order for greater offensives, the government would still ''nurture the seeds of a principled, secure and enduring peace'' in Mindanao.
The president, who stood behind a podium while delivering her speech, said a ''strategic war'' would be fought on the political, diplomatic, military, cultural, economic, humanitarian and information fronts.
Kabalu linked the offensive to her trip, saying: ''Gloria Arroyo only wanted to impress (President) George Bush because of her state visit to the United States and to get more military and government aid and sympathy.''
''You see, the order was issued on the eve of her visit to the US,'' he said. ''It's a simple form of pagyayabang (boasting) so she can convince Bush to give more money. She could tell him, ''Look, our resources against terrorism are depleted.'''
Kabalu said Arroyo did not name the MILF ''because she knows that the word ''terrorists'' would be more sellable to the Bush administration.''
He said there was ''nothing new'' in the order: ''That is not new to us ... not in Mindanao. With or without the order, military operations have been going on.''
Kabalu also said the Arroyo administration had long thought of more action against the MILF by deploying more troops to Mindanao.
He cited the arrival in Cotabato City of troops from the Visayas. The additional soldiers, he said, would ''surely be deployed to the Lanao areas, including Iligan City.''
The military in Cotabato City confirmed the deployment of more troops to Central Mindanao from Bacolod City.
Arroyo earlier this week suspended peace talks with the rebels, following an upsurge in bombings and raids on civilian targets that have claimed almost a hundred lives since March.
She has also given the MILF until June 1 to cease attacking civilians and disavow links with foreign and local terrorist groups or be branded as terrorists themselves, effectively crippling chances of further peace talks.
Military officials said operations against MILF rebels, who have stepped up raids and ambushes since a military offensive in February drove them from a major Mindanao stronghold, will intensify with Arroyo's instructions.
The head of the military's Southern Command in Zamboanga, Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, told a news conference after Arroyo's order that ''deliberate and selective targets will be hit hard to ferret out the perpetrators of the terrorist acts'' in the south.
Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, the separatist group's vice chair for military affairs, blamed the government for the impasse and warned that Manila's increasingly hard-line stance could kill the peace process.
Murad said Manila should bear responsibility for the ongoing conflict in Mindanao since the MILF had always been on the defensive.
He cited the military offensive which began February 11 in Pikit, North Cotabato province, which displaced MILF fighters from their camp as well as some 40,000 villagers.
''The government justified the offensive by saying troops were running after kidnap for ransom gangs, but not a single kidnapper had been arrested or killed in the entire duration of the operation,'' Murad noted.
He said the offensive was a blatant violation of the cease-fire agreement signed between the government and MILF on Aug. 7, 2001, which was still holding at the time, he said.
The MILF also complained that the government was heaping all the blame on its fighters even for acts they have not done.
Spokesman Kabalu cited the toppling of 12 electric posts in the village of Pacioles in barangay Midtapok of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat on Thursday night.
Kabalu said MILF investigators were able to identify the culprits as militiamen under Mayor Ramon Abalos.
''This is a scenario aimed to hasten Mayor Abalos' request for 500 pieces of firearms from the military. Therefore the report that it was done by MILF forces is completely false,'' Kabalu said.
