A Filipino photojournalist speaks to soldiers guarding the Sulu airport Thursday, November 20, 2008. President Gloria Arroyo has canceled her trip to Sulu where she would have graced the conference on peace of dozens of Catholic and Protestant bishops and ulama because of bad weather condition. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez, center, and President Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, left, feast on durian with Gov. Sakur Tan in Sulku province Thursday, November 20, 2008. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 20, 2008) – Philippine leader Gloria Arroyo canceled her trip Thursday to Sulu province where she was invited to grace the conference on peace of the Catholic and Protestant bishops and ulama.
Francis Dacer, of the Presidential Management Staff, said the President aborted her trip because of bad weather condition. “We are so sorry but the President cannot come to Sulu because of bad weather condition. She waited for an hour in Zamboanga for the weather to clear, but there is no way the President can come,” he told local officials and reporters here.
Supporters of President Arroyo and local officials were dismayed by the cancellation of the trip, saying, they had prepared a huge welcome in Sulu.
But Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan said the safety of the President is more important than the preparation of her visit. “The safety of President Arroyo is more important than anything else. The President will visit us soon,” he said.
President Arroyo’s security and peace advisers Norberto Gonzales and Hermogenes Esperon arrived earlier in the day and attended the Bishops-Ulama Conference held at the Notre Dame University.
Security was tight the entire day. The President canceled her trip two days after Abu Sayyaf militants ambushed a Filipino and US military convoy in Indanan town.
There were no reports of casualties from the military side, but one militant was wounded in the exchange of gunfire, according to a report by the local ABS-CBN television network, quoting, Col. Eugene Clemen, commander of the Philippine Marines 3rd Brigade in Sulu.
He said the soldiers were on their way to inspect an infrastructure project when they were ambushed, it said. The attack coincided with the capture of an Abu Sayyaf bomber Almid Jundam in Sulu on Tuesday. Jundam is a notorious member of the Abu Sayyaf's urban terrorist group, who was behind the planting of a homemade bomb at the Sulu airport runway on Saturday.
But Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of military forces in Sulu, quickly denied the report. “That's not true. It did not happen,” he said.
Col. Joseph Mouer, commander of US forces deployed in Sulu, did not want to give any statement and told reporters to interview local military officials.
“I cannot give any statement, you should ask the local commanders,” he said.In August, Abu Sayyaf militants also ambushed a Philippine and US military convoy in Sulu, killing four Filipino soldiers and wounded ten more in the village of Bonbon in Patikul town.
The incident was also not reported to the local media, but the Guam Army National Guard released a brief statement confirming that one of its servicemen was unharmed following an attack on his unit in Sulu.
The US soldier was not identified, but the Guam Army National Guard said the serviceman is attached to a platoon with the 294th Infantry Regiment deployed in May in Sulu to aide in the ongoing conflict there.
The Philippine military and the US Embassy in Manila insisted no US soldiers were in the attacked convoy.
American troops are training and assisting local soldiers in defeating terrorism in the southern Philippines on the request of the Philippine government. Earlier this month, Filipino soldiers also captured an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Sakirin Andalan Sali and killed another militant, Faidar Hadjadi, in a firefight in Sulu. (Mindanao Examiner)
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