| PHILIPPINE
MILITARY TO SCALE DOWN FORCES IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES: SPOKESMAN MANILA, June 16 (AFP) -
The Philippine military said
Thursday it will scale down its forces in the south following a series of battlefield
victories over Muslim separatist rebels.
Armed forces civil relations
chief Colonel Jaime Canatoy said an undetermined number of troops arrayed against the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the southern region of Mindanao would be redeployed.
"There will be a
deceleration because of the series of defeats suffered by the MILF. They are running low
on ammmunition, they are on the run and don't have sanctuaries anymore," Canatoy told
reporters.
Military officials say about 60
percent of the armed forces, or about 70,000 soldiers, have been concentrated in Mindanao
to fight a resurgence of MILF attacks this year, as well as gunmen from the smaller Abu
Sayyaf extremist group.
The Abu Sayyaf has been holding
21 mostly foreign hostages on the island of Jolo for nearly two months, while the MILF
rebellion centers on the province of Maguindanao and surrounding provinces.
"We have degraded their
military capability and they are not as strong as before," Canatoy said, referring to
the 15,000-strong MILF which has been waging a 22-year war for an independent Islamic
homeland.
The military has so far
captured 19 MILF bases since launching the offensive in April.
Although troops have stormed
the gates of the main MILF base of Camp Abubakar, military field commanders said they have
been ordered against taking over the cantonment.
They said orders to capture
Camp Abubakar, the political and military headquarters of the MILF, would have to be a
political decision by the government of President Joseph Estrada which is engaged in peace
talks with the guerrillas.
Estrada aides say that the
strategy is to isolate the rebels in Camp Abubakar and force the MILF to a peace agreement
on government terms.
Estrada on Wednesday rejected
calls from a group of influential Roman Catholic bishops for a truce with the MILF and
gave three conditions before the army will stop its offensive.
In a dialogue with the bishops,
Estrada said the guerrillas must first lay down their arms, abandon their campaign for
independence and put a stop to "terrorist and criminal" activities before he
agrees to a ceasefire.
Press Secretary Ricardo Puno
said Estrada gave the bishops six months to help convince the MILF to lay down their arms.
Orlando Quevedo, the president
of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, on Thursday clarified that the church leaders had not
offered to mediate a surrender by the MILF.
"What we said was that the
issue of a surrender of arms should be part of the negotiations for peace," Quevedo
said in a statement.
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