JOLO ISLAND (Mindanao Examiner / 08 Jan) – Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Monday praised soldiers for their successful operation against members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiya militants in Jolo island.
Arroyo visited the troubled island, about 950 kms south of Manila, under tight security. About 300 troops and policemen guarded the Filipino leader who inaugurated a $969,000 US-funded road project in Parang town and a hospital inside a military base in Jolo town. US Charge d'Affaires Paul Jones and Presidential peace adviser Secy. Jesus Dureza accompanied Arroyo.
A US EP3 reconnaissance plane was also spotted over Parang town, aside from a pair of Filipino MG-520 combat choppers. About a dozen local politicians arrived with armed escorts. Soldiers and policemen overwhelmed some 200 people invited in the inauguratin in Parang town.
Arroyo shook hands with the locals and briefly stopped to chat with some Muslim women. She also praised the US for its development projects in Jolo, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf.
Arroyo commended the soldiers for their courage in fighting the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya. She was also briefed by Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Western Mindanao military commander Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo.
Soldiers killed at least 6 Abu Sayyaf members, including an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya militant, in a fierce sea battle on Saturday off the southern island of Tawi-Tawi near the Sabah border.
Esperon on Monday said those killed were attempting to escape to Sabah. Troops attacked an Abu Sayyaf speedboat after it tried to escape from a sea blockade near Panglima Sugala town.
The boat’s passengers traded automatic gunfire with soldiers until they were all killed.
“I commend the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the successful operation against the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah, which only proves that these terrorist elements have nowhere to hide and are in fact already doomed to annihilation.”
“Our fight against terror goes hand in hand with the global and regional effort; and as we face the ASEAN summit, we would like to assure all our allies in East Asia and beyond that the Filipino soldiery and people are on watch every hour of the day, determined to do their share to defeat terror for a more secure and safer world,” she said.
Arroyo was referring to the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit set to be held in the central Philippine island of Cebu this week. (Mindanao Examiner)
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