US open to include NPA as targets of RP-US military exercises

By Ronron
June 27, 2007

The United States Armed Forces is open to the idea of including the New People’s Army (NPA) in the target of joint annual Philippine and US military exercises in the coming years.

US Pacific Command chief Admiral Timothy Keating told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo Wednesday that if the Philippine government makes such a request, the US will gladly respond.

Currently, joint and combined military training exercises of the Philippines and the US are geared at addressing the threat of terrorism posed by Moslem extremists, particularly the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Jemaah Islamiyah, both believed to have links with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

Keating is in Manila for a three-day visit, which includes holding a meeting with AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. for the Mutual Defense Board’s planned activities in the next five years.

“We’re just right now focused on the Abu Sayyaf Group but if the government of the Philippines tells us that they need help on the People’s Army, we would consider and respond,” Keating said in an ambush interview.

He said their assistance could even extend to the fight against illegal drugs and other transnational crimes, if requested by the Philippine government.

“In fact, we have an integrated task force in Honolulu helping with the Philippines and other countries in the area … on (the fight against) drugs,” Keating said.

Asked for his part if the neutralization of the NPA can also be included as among the goals of the MDB-approved activities, AFP Public Information Officer Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said: “I have to refer that to the AFP leadership because that is a policy. I will not be in a position to answer that.”

Though it has been calling the NPA as a terrorist movement, the government has been warning the group that it faces the risk of being proscribed as a terrorist organization once the Human Security Act of 2007 or the so-called Anti-Terrorism Bill takes effect after July 14.

The 7,100-strong NPA has been waging guerilla warfare in the countryside in the last 38 years in pursuit of a socialist form of government. Among the violent activities it has done are harassing and destroying telecommunication facilities, raiding police stations and other government establishments, and hitting government troops with landmines.

But Keating said the US makes sure that once it extends support in the Philippine’s drive against any organization, it is not against the law.

“We’re very careful about sovereignty issue and it is only in response to the Philippine government request that we respond,” Keating said./DMS