Saturday, August 07, 2004 RP unfazed by ouster from US-led coalition
MANILA -- President Arroyo said Friday the Philippines remains committed to the fight against terror, as her aide shrugged off reports that the country has been stricken out of the US-led "coalition of the willing."
"I have taken responsibility, no apologies, I stuck to my oath, but let me emphasize that our people and our nation remain committed to our friends and allies abroad even as we remained true to our conviction here at home," Arroyo said of her decision to pull out peacekeepers from Iraq to save the life of a Filipino taken hostage by Iraqi militants.
Arroyo added during the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) meeting Friday night that the country enjoys a strong relationship with the Bush administration and value its role in helping the country.
The US embassy here said earlier Friday that while Washington was "disappointed" by Manila's decision to withdraw its troops from Iraq a month ahead of schedule, "we are continuing to cooperate in a variety of ways in the global war against terrorism."
"The Philippines remains an ally -- one with whom we have a long-standing shared history and many common interests including defeating terrorism in the region," the statement said.
Arroyo agreed: "We share the same goal even if we will not always walk on the same path. There are more meaningful ways to strengthen our strategic relationships with the United States. We shall always work to keep the relationship firm and propelling the common commitment to fight terrorism domestically, regionally and worldwide."
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday the US no longer considers the Philippines a member of the coalition.
Reacting to Boucher's statement, Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said earlier Friday that the President was neither sorry nor would she apologize for choosing to save the life of a Filipino.
"If this is the price to pay for being a Filipino and for leading the Filipino nation, so be it," he added.
But while Malacaņang shrugged off reports about the Philippines getting dropped from the US-led coalition, several senators expressed dismay over the decision.
In her meeting with the press Friday night, Arroyo again defended her move to withdraw Filipino peacekeepers from Iraq.
She said she hoped the US and other allies would come to understand that the Philippines is in a "special circumstance", citing that eight million Filipinos live and work abroad. Of this, 4,000 are in Iraq.
She added that she had sought to reduce the 4,000 mostly Filipino truck drivers' vulnerability to terror attacks in Iraq by pulling out Philippine peacekeepers a month ahead of schedule.
The 4,000 Filipino private workers in Iraq are more valuable to the Iraqi government than the 100 peacekeepers despite the fine work they have done there, she pointed out.
She also reiterated her foreign policy, which focuses on protecting the interests of the Filipinos by responding to the eight realities in the global and regional environment.
Arroyo said her highest priorities are economic growth and job creation and to achieve these, the nation needs to come to terms with the Mindanao problem.
The importance of government's fight against terrorism in Mindanao overshadows whatever the country could contribute to a coalition of the willing in Iraq, she pointed out.
"Anything that is distracting our administration from getting its act together to triumph in Mindanao needs to be put aside," she said.
The struggle in Mindanao Arroyo referred to as an important front in the war on terror.
She said the Philippines has the US as its partner in bringing humanitarian services to the poorest communities in Mindanao.
At the same time, US Special Forces troops are teaching their Filipino counterparts fighting skills to annihilate existing terror cells in the island province, she stressed.
Despite reports saying the Philippines was being dropped from the coalition, Bunye said Philippine-US relations would continue to survive. He said this would also apply to the country's ties with other nations still in the coalition.
At the Senate, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, head of the committee on foreign relations, said "it is regrettable to see Washington dropping the Philippines like a hot potato after a lengthy period of wooing us to side with them."
Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., on the other hand, said if the US had indeed removed the country from the coalition, so be it. The country should just continue its fight against terrorism, he added.
Other senators, like Manuel Villar and Alfredo Lim, said they expected the US to do this.
Lim added the country should move on from this and strengthen its relations with other countries. (Sunnex)
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