War games being planned in Central Mindanao?

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — President Arroyo’s visit to Central Mindanao, along with US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone and Admiral Tomas Fargo of the US Armed Forces in the Pacific, has fueled speculations that Malacañang is planning to host a Philippine-US war exercise in the region.

In a press briefing here yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo, however, clarified that Ricciardone and Fargo accompanied her to Central Mindanao only to witness the inauguration of high-impact projects in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

The US government has various humanitarian ventures in impoverished communities in the two provinces.

Mrs. Arroyo said the US government has been actively helping Malacañang address socio-economic and security concerns in many parts of Mindanao.

Influential blocs of political leaders in Central Mindanao, among them North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol and Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, have long been clamoring for a joint Philippine-US military exercise in the region to hone the skills of local police and military units in fighting terrorists and the notorious Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang.

Mrs. Arroyo said her administration is now looking into the reported ongoing joint guerrilla trainings of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front at Mount Cararao at the boundary of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

"We are now investigating that. We are also resuming the peace talks," Mrs. Arroyo told reporters in the presence of Ricciardone and Fargo.

Central Mindanao’s religious community earlier called on Malacañang to first investigate the alleged presence of Jemaah Islamiyah members in known MILF strongholds, including Mt. Cararao, before resuming peace talks with the separatist group.

"The Jemaah Islamiyah has been here for four years now and it is only my administration that is cutting the horns of the bull," Mrs. Arroyo said, referring to Malacañang’s campaign against the terror group, which reportedly has more than 50 members holding out in Southern Mindanao.

Mrs. Arroyo said her administration has been doing its best to enhance and accelerate the peace talks with the MILF.

Asked how budgetary constraints have been affecting her administration’s socio-economic thrusts in former MILF enclaves, including Camp Abubakar, the front’s former bastion and now a "peace zone," she simply replied, "We have to live within our means."

Since 2001, the Army’s 54th Engineering Brigade has implemented 145 projects at Camp Abubakar, now guarded by three battalions of soldiers.