MANILA, 14 May 2005 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday demanded the US Embassy back up its allegations that the southern Philippines was a “gateway” for foreign militants seeking terrorist training.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) suspended grant funding for a planned road project on Mindanao Island amid fears the project might inadvertently help Muslim militants achieve their goals.
US Ambassador to Manila Francis Ricciardone told a news conference on Wednesday: “We don’t want to build a road that’s going to make it easier for bombers to sneak in and out in the dead of night and elude the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
Reacting to the envoy’s comments, Arroyo noted that the two military allies had well-established channels on anti-terrorist cooperation.
“The prudent thing I think is to get more details — not for me but for my intelligence people — from the US intelligence people to indeed see if there’s some kernel of truth to this allegation,” she told a news conference.
On Wednesday, Ricciardone noted that based on US intelligence information, Cotabato City has become a “doormat” for terrorists, prompting the suspension of a $1-million grant for a crucial road project there.
“Cotabato has been becoming a gateway for investment and trade, and business of all legitimate source,” he said. “But in recent months, we’ve also heard that it is being used as a doormat by some killers.”
“We think we better get a grip on that because we need to understand what’s going on down there and make sure that these evil people cannot use Cotabato,” he added.
“We don’t want to build a road that these people will use in coming in and out of Cotabato.”
The US decision touched off a spate of anti-American street protests earlier this month in Cotabato, a Muslim-Christian entrepot of about 164,000 people.
Supporters of the city mayor, former Muslim separatist rebel leader Muslimin Sema, burned US flags and the city council passed a resolution declaring Ricciardone “persona non grata.”
Arroyo said yesterday “that (the residents’ anger) is understandable, so the most important thing is to get to the bottom of the allegation.”
“If indeed that road is crucial, well, we’ll just have to look for the money from our own funds,” she said.
Ricciardone stressed that the promised US funding had not been cancelled. “I hope in fact that we can resume it because we do want to resolve some questions on the directions of Cotabato.”
During the same news conference, Ricciardone had said Washington wanted to single out leading Filipino Muslim rebels in Mindanao as “terrorists” if they were found to have ties with global terror groups.
“We have pushed for the identification of these people and if there were some way to make it harder for them to travel internationally and to move money back and forth, then I think we’d like to do that,” he said.
He alleged there were sections in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front — a separatist guerrilla group observing a cease-fire while holding peace talks with Manila — that provided sanctuary for foreign militants, including suspects in the 2002 Bali, Indonesia bombings that killed more than 200 people.
