Philippines, US Fail to Agree on Terms of US Forces Deployment

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 03, 2003

Philippines, US Fail to Agree on Terms of US Forces Deployment

Philippine Defense Secretary AngeloReyes returned to Manila on Monday after his US visit without a deal on the deployment of US troops in a southern Philippine island.

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Philippine Defense Secretary AngeloReyes returned to Manila on Monday after his US visit without a deal on the deployment of US troops in a southern Philippine island.

"This is the situation: our discussions are continuing," Reyes told reporters upon arrival, adding, "We are just trying to find the solution, the option that is mutually acceptable and responsive to the requirements and the needs of both countries, within the constitutional and legal constraints, principally of the Philippines."

The two militaries had planned to deploy 1,700 US special forces on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, assisting Filipino soldiers in their hunt for remnant Abu Sayyaf bandits there, but this has triggered wide-spreading controversy in the country as the Philippine Constitution bans foreign combatants operating on its soil.

Manila proposed to term the deployment as an exercise, wherein the US participants will be forbidden to fire their weapons unlessbeing attacked, in an attempt to shun to constitutional restriction.

Washington, however, is reluctant to strike the deal since lives of the US soldiers will be highly endangered due to their passive role in the exercise. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday that the US role in the operation would be very carefully tailored to reflect the Philippine constitution.

US forces helped to train Philippine troops in a joint war gamelast year targeting at the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan island near Jolo,after which, Manila estimated merely 470 Abu Sayyaf bandits remained with around 380 believed to be hiding in the jungles on Jolo.

The group, which is accused of keeping a loose link with international terror network al-Qaeda, is still holding two Indonesian seamen and four Filipina Christian preachers on Jolo.

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