RP with US vs terrorism every step of the way — GMA

WASHINGTON — On the eve of her meeting with United States President George W. Bush, President Arroyo pledged full support to the US-led war on terrorism and vowed to bring Filipino terrorist groups to justice.

Speaking at Georgetown University, Mrs. Arroyo said the Abu Sayyaf group, which she described as evil, would be demolished.

But in an apparent pitch for US economic assistance, she said poverty nurtured the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to international terrorist Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.

"Poverty provides the spawning ground," President Arroyo stressed.

Mrs. Arroyo graduated in 1968 from Georgetown’s foreign service school.

She said the Philippines joins the US "every step of the way" in the fight against terrorism.

She said she was the first Southeast Asian leader to telephone Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"I am here in Washington to affirm our solidarity," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"It is our belief that evil should not be allowed to rule even one inch of the earth," she added.

She also said she has offered Philippine airspace and, subject to congressional approval, combat troops if requested, to the multinational campaign against terrorism, which is currently focused on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that harbors Bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"These are not attacks against one country, but on the world community. Therefore, we must respond as a community. In these difficult times, international cooperation is more important that ever."

She said Philippine troops will continue its pursuit of the Abu Sayyaf group that still holds an American missionary couple and a number of Filipino hostages.

Mrs. Arroyo joined a growing chorus of leaders of developing nations who want the US to ensure that its war on terrorism is directed at destitute areas considered as the breeding grounds of terror.

"In the face of recession, investors have been quick to yank out funds from emerging market thousands of miles removed from Ground Zero," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo visited Ground Zero, as the ruins of the World Trade Center are known, before traveling to Washington.