Robust US-RP ties to remain under Obama
By Jim Gomez
Associated Press
First Posted 21:17:00 01/07/2009
Filed Under: Foreign affairs & international relations, US elections, Politics
MANILA, Philippines—Washington's robust anti-terror alliance with the Philippines, including the presence of US troops in the southern Mindanao region, will almost certainly remain under Barack Obama's incoming administration, the Philippine defense chief said Wednesday.
Both countries continue to benefit from counterterrorism cooperation and there has been no sign that either wants to change the security pacts that have bound them for decades, Teodoro said.
"The strategic policy interests remain the same whether it is President-elect Obama or President Bush," Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told a news conference.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a staunch backer of Washington's campaign against terrorism, allowed US troops into Mindanao in 2002 to help arm and train underfunded Filipino soldiers battling al-Qaeda-linked groups like the Abu Sayyaf and Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah.
The US military's noncombat assistance -- they have fewer than 500 troops there -- has been credited with helping local troops kill or capture several Abu Sayyaf commanders and prevent terror attacks.
But the American presence has been a sensitive issue in this former US colony, where the constitution bans American forces from joining combat.
A prominent leftist group, Bayan, has urged Obama to immediately withdraw American troops from Mindanao, claiming their presence violates Philippine sovereignty. The group also has called for scrapping a pact that has authorized the US military presence.
Obama, who takes office January 20, has not specifically stated a position on the US military presence in Mindanao.
While the 120,000-strong Philippine military is mainly responsible for the country's security, Teodoro suggested it still needs America's help to deal with continuing terrorist threats.
US and Philippine military forces have begun to prepare for their first annual war exercise, called Balikatan -- Tagalog for "shoulder to shoulder" -- under Obama, to be held sometime between February and April.
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