GMA to discuss anti-terror drive with Britain’s Blair

President Arroyo will be meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair next week to discuss anti-terrorism efforts and police cooperation.

The President told members of the Makati Business Club (MBC) during the group’s 20th anniversary celebration yesterday that she would make good on a promise to ask the famed Scotland Yard police to train Filipino law enforcers in battling organized criminals, particularly kidnap-for-ransom syndicates.

Mrs. Arroyo is leaving Sunday night for an official trip to the United States where she would address the annual World Economic Forum set to start next Thursday in New York.

On her way to the US, she will stop by London on Monday and Tuesday and make a side trip to Toronto in Canada on Wednesday to drum up investment and trade.

She said she would have a "conference" with Blair regarding terrorism and poverty.

"Prime Minister Blair is one of the leaders of the world who, like me, keep putting together the link between terrorism and poverty," she said.

Blair has rallied support for the international anti-terror campaign launched after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

For her part, Mrs. Arroyo has been one of the most vocal supporters of the US-led campaign. As proof of the country’s military ties with the US, American soldiers have begun pouring into the Philippines this month to help train local troops to battle the Abu Sayyaf, a group of Muslim bandits holding hostage an American couple in Mindanao.

As the President revealed details of her trip, she expressed confidence that the country would be in safe hands while she is away.

She has assigned Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. and Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo to serve as "caretakers" in her absence.

This will be Mrs. Arroyo’s ninth foreign trip since becoming president in January last year. She said fears of a military coup d’etat are far from her mind as groups seeking her ouster have appeared to have lost steam in the past two months.

She revealed that the plot to oust her was supposed to be launched in November but it did not materialize.

"November was supposed to be their D-Month," she said during the open forum after her speech at the MBC event.

Several top business leaders, including MBC president Ricardo Romulo, have been invited to be part of the President’s official delegation to Britain, Canada and the US.

For her trip in Canada, the President said she will be meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to re-establish bilateral relations and friendship.

Canada is one of the Philippines’ biggest sources of investment and official development assistance (ODA) funds, which are being used for infrastructure projects in the provinces.