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1) Philippine President Approves Joint Exercise With U.S. Troops
2) 4 Killed in Philippine Military Plane Crash
3) Philippine Government, MILF Agree on Truce Monitoring Terms
1) Philippine President Approves Joint Exercise With U.S. Troops
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Xinhuanet 2002-01-14 16:05:20
MANILA, January 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo has given the go-signal to the military to hold
joint exercise with U.S. troops in Mindanao area, the southern
Philippines.
Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Monday that the
plan for the "Mindanao Shoulder by Shoulder" exercise to be held
in Basilan and Zamboanga was submitted by Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) officials and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and
was approved by Arroyo.
The exercise to be officially started on Tuesday will involve
training of Philippine troops in an actual terrain of military
operations and against an actual enemy, the Abu Sayyaf bandits.
Tiglao said that the U.S. personnel will not be engaged in
combat, and they will be under the command and supervision of AFP
officers. The program does not in any way involve the setting up
of U.S. military facilities, he added.
He also said that the exercise will be undertaken under the
framework of the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces
Agreement between the two countries.
Dozens of U.S. military advisers have arrived the Philippines
in the past months to help training Philippine troops fighting
against the Abu Sayyaf bandits who are still holding two American
and one Filipino hostages.
Tiglao said since last May to January 11, 2002, 166 Abu Sayyaf
leaders and members have been killed in fire-fights, 211 arrested
and 104 have surrendered.
The Abu Sayyaf bandit group, notorious for kidnapping-for-
ransom activities, is on U.S. list of international terrorist
groups.
Enditem
2) 4 Killed in Philippine Military Plane Crash
==============================
Xinhuanet 2002-01-14 17:38:42
MANILA, January 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A military trainer plane crashed
into a residential neighborhood in the northern Philippines Monday
afternoon, killing at least four people.
The bodies of two pilots and two other persons have been
recovered. Fifteen houses in the crashing scene in the Cabanatuan
City of Nueva Ecija province are still on fire and it is not clear
whether there are other casualties, the ABS-CBN news channel
reported.
Firefighters and rescue workers were immediately deployed to
the scene.
Aviation officials have yet to determine the cause of the crash.
Enditem
3) Philippine Government, MILF Agree on Truce Monitoring Terms
===============================================
Xinhuanet 2002-01-14 19:20:10
MANILA, January 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The Philippine government and
the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to set
up local monitoring teams to ensure compliance with a ceasefire
and rehabilitation agreement they signed last August.
Peace negotiators from the two sides met Saturday for a fourth
round of talks in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato on the
composition of the monitoring teams, which will include
representatives of local government units, two non-governmental
organizations, and the religious sector.
"The local monitoring teams would hopefully strengthen the
ceasefire agreement," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said in an
interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer online news on Monday.
The negotiating panels have also urged representatives of the
Organization of Islamic Conference, especially Malaysia, Libya,
and Indonesia, to "observe and monitor" the ceasefire as well as
the implementation of the agreement the two sides signed during
their second round of talks in Malaysia in August last year.
The agreement calls for a halt to the fighting, and relief,
rehabilitation and development programs for the conflict areas in
the southern island of Mindanao.
During their third round of talks last October, also in
Malaysia, the two sides adopted a manual containing detailed
instructions on how to implement the ceasefire, but failed to
agree on the issue of who should lead and manage rehabilitation
and development projects for Mindanao.
Kabalu said the panels would meet again on February 11 on
putting the monitoring teams into operation. But he said MILF
fighters would defend themselves when attacked. Sporadic fighting
has repeatedly occurred between government troops and MILF rebels
despite the ceasefire agreement.
The 12,500-strong MILF has been waging a rebellion since 1978
for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in poverty-
stricken Mindanao, home to most of the 5 million Muslim minority
in the predominantly Roman Catholic country of 76.5 million people.
The MILF, which pulled out of peace negotiations with the
government in 2000 after former President Joseph Estrada ordered
an all-out war against the group, resumed formal peace talks with
the government in June 2001 in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Enditem
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