Supreme Court: ‘Balikatan’ legal

The Supreme Court (SC) upheld yesterday the validity of the joint RP-US "Balikatan" military exercises in Basilan but sternly warned that US troops should not engage in combat to flush out Abu Sayyaf terrorists who are holding a Filipino nurse and an American missionary couple hostage.

The SC released the ruling, penned by Justice Sabino de Leon, as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced in Washington that the US is nearing a decision to intensify its anti-terrorism assistance to the Philippines.

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao confirmed that some 300 members of a Navy construction battalion, or US Seabees, would be arriving in Basilan next week to finish some civil work stalled because of the peace and order situation.

Tiglao said the additional US troops would not have to be covered by a new terms of reference (TOR) because the additional US troops would only be engaged in construction work and not combat.

The high court, voting 10-3, also stressed in its ruling that allowing US troops to engage in combat on Philippine territory would be illegal.

The high court cited two earlier rulings in clarifying that treaties with other countries are "always subject to qualification or amendment by a subsequent law, or that it is subject to the police power of the State."

"The foregoing premises leave us no doubt that US forces are prohibited from engaging in an offensive war on Philippine territory," the tribunal declared citing its earlier ruling on the cases of Ichong vs Hernandez and Gonzales vs Hechanova.

"In our considered opinion, neither the Mutual Defense Treaty nor the Visiting Forces Agreement allow foreign troops to engage in an offensive war on Philippine territory," De Leon wrote in his 22-page decision.

The jurists, except Justices Santiago Kapunan, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, also ruled that President Arroyo did not abuse her authority in approving the Balikatan war games.

"We find that the holding of Balikatan has not intruded into that penumbra of error that would otherwise call for correction on our part. In other words, the government (has) not committed grave abuse of discretion," de Leon wrote.

Pentagon mulls closer contact with Abus

It was not clear what impact the SC ruling would have on US Pentagon proposals to push the training level of the ongoing Balikatan exercises to company-sized units, bringing the Americans into closer contact with the bandits.

The Associated Press reported that some Pentagon officials may ask Manila to allow US military advisers to work with company-sized instead of battalion-sized units. The proposal is only one of several being considered by Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials.

"It’s a mixed bag. There are a series of different things" the US may do to increase its assistance, Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon.

"There is a reasonable likelihood that we will be doing it sometime in the period immediately ahead," he said. "Once we figure out what we think makes sense from our standpoint, we’ll want to talk to the Philippine government... (But) we haven’t settled precisely on what it is we think we can do."

But Tiglao said the 300 Seabees from the US military base in Okinawa, Japan would be arriving next week to drill wells, expand the airstrip and improve roads on Basilan island.

The US Seabees are expected to arrive one week before 2,000 US troops on 45 aircraft and a warship arrive for the two-week "Balikatan 02-2" exercises which will be held in Central Luzon from April 22 to May 6.

Ambassador Jaime Yambao, executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACom), said that aside from 2,000 troops, the US would also bring 12 C-130 cargo planes, four KC-130 cargo planes, four F-18D fighter jets, four AH-1, four CH-53E, four CH53D, three UH-160 and three UH-60M helicopters.

The USS Fort McHenry is also on its way to Luzon for the exercises, Yambao added.

The exercises will be conducted at Clark Field and Crow Valley in Barangay Sta. Juliana in Capas, Tarlac and some 40 Aeta families have already been relocated in preparation for the exercises. - With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Ding Cervantes, Artemio Dumlao