Bombings mar Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's scheduled visit to Honolulu on Thursday will celebrate the accomplishments of Hawaii's Filipinos and the opening of the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu.
Arroyo’s scheduled
Hawaii visit
Both canceling the trip
Philippines on alert
and continuing as planned
have downsides, experts sayBy Craig Gima
cgima@starbulletin.comBut deadly bombings in Manila and Zamboanga in the Southern Philippines the past week are likely to take some of the attention away from Hawaii and may even lead to a cancellation of the trip if the violence continues, experts say.
"It doesn't look good either way for her to stay there or for her to come," said Belinda Aquino, director of the University of Hawaii Center for Philippine Studies.
If she cancels the trip, it could appear that she is caving in to terrorists, but she may also be criticized if she takes a foreign trip in a time of crisis.
"If this (series of bombings) escalates, it may not be in her best interest to leave the country, politically," Aquino said.
As of yesterday, however, there were no plans to cancel the visit.
Arroyo has two public appearances Thursday -- in the afternoon at the Filipino Community Center, where she will plant a tree and meet with students and Filipino war veterans, and at a dinner that night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel. Both events are designed to show Arroyo the progress Hawaii's Filipinos have made.
It will offer Arroyo the opportunity to hear from Filipino World War II veterans who are expected to ask for her help in lobbying President Bush and Congress to pass a bill to give them the same benefits as Americans who fought in the Philippines during World War II. She also wants to hear about the concerns of ordinary Filipinos living in Hawaii, organizers say.
"The visit to Hawaii is something that will be related to (the Filipino) community," said Rolando Gregorio, Philippine consul general in Hawaii. "The president is going out of her way to meet as many Filipinos as possible who are overseas."
But just as much attention may be given to a private meeting Thursday morning with Adm. Thomas Fargo, the commander in chief of U.S. Pacific forces.
A CINCPAC spokeswoman described the meeting as "routine," a courtesy call in return for a visit Fargo paid in the Philippines earlier this year. However, the war on terrorism and the U.S.-Philippine security relationship will probably be discussed, she said.
The presence of the U.S. military in the Philippines is a sensitive domestic issue for Arroyo, said Jerry Jerry Finin, a senior fellow at the East-West Center.
"People have questioned to what extent the presence of U.S. troops has infringed on Philippine sovereignty," he said.
About 600 U.S. Marines are finishing up a joint military exercise called Talon Vision 02 this week and another joint training exercise against the Abu Sayyaf insurgency, which may include soldiers from Hawaii, is scheduled for May.
About 260 American troops remain in Zamboanga following the first six-month U.S. counterterrorism training exercise aimed at helping Filipino troops fight the Abu Sayyaf insurgency.
Officials said the Abu Sayyaf, which the Philippine and U.S. governments have linked to al-Qaida, was the most likely suspect for Thursday's bombings in Zamboanga city, which killed seven people and injured more than 150.
The Abu Sayyaf recently threatened attacks in retaliation for an ongoing military offensive against it, and has been blamed for an Oct. 2 bombing in Zamboanga that killed four people, including an American Green Beret.
No one has claimed responsibility for those bombings or for another bombing on a bus in the Manila suburb of Quezon City Friday. That explosion killed two people and injured 20 and followed a grenade explosion in the Makati financial district earlier Friday. No one was injured in that blast.
The bombings show that more than just U.S. military help is needed to stop terrorism in the Philippines, Finin said.
"Even after all of the investment in training and in working to capture the Abu Sayyaf leadership, the peace and order situation has continued to deteriorate," Finin said. "Simply providing training and additional high-tech arms may not bring about instantaneous results that are desired."
In addition, Finin said, the bombings make it more difficult for Arroyo to attract needed foreign investment and economic development to the Philippines -- another purpose of Arroyo's trip, which also takes her to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, followed by meetings with high-tech officials in San Jose.
Normally the annual APEC meetings with the leaders of member countries focus on trade. This year's agenda will also focus on terrorism and Arroyo is likely to have serious talks with Bush about the war on terrorism and the situation in the Philippines and Indonesia.
The leaders are planning to issue a statement on counter-terrorism focusing on denying would-be attackers access to ships and planes, officials with access to summit planning documents said.
Finin speculated that Arroyo could ask Bush for more aid to support the armed forces of the Philippines and for economic development projects in the region.
The Hawaii stop comes before the serious discussions at APEC and it is a visit the local Filipino community and Arroyo have been looking forward to for a long time.
Community leader Eddie Flores said he and Roland Casamia, president of the Filipino Community Center, visited Malacanang Palace in February and invited her to come to Hawaii for the opening of the center in June. Flores said Arroyo could not get away then, but promised she would come to Hawaii in the latter part of the year.
"She said, 'I want to visit that famous Filipino Community Center,'" Casamia said. "It's an honor for the president of our homeland to visit."
Flores said Filipinos have been looked down upon by other ethnic groups, but now Hawaii has a Filipino governor and the new community center, the largest outside of the Philippines.
The president's visit, he said, "is like icing on the cake."
Gregorio said while here, Arroyo will meet privately with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye about the Filipino veterans bill and other pending issues in Congress.
The Philippine government and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply are also talking about signing an agreement that could lead to a role for Honolulu to help improve water supplies in the Philippines, said Erwin Kawata, principal executive for business development at the Board of Water Supply.
The visit also could benefit Arroyo's chances in the 2004 Philippines presidential elections. A bill pending in the Philippine Congress would allow overseas Filipinos to vote in the elections, Finin noted.
"Clearly she wants to strengthen her linkages with the Filipino community in Hawaii," he said. "Potentially in the future there could be thousands of people with permanent residency who could vote in Philippine elections."
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
14th President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Born: April 5, 1947
Education: Valedictorian of her high school class at Assumption Convent.
Attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Graduated from Assumption College in the Philippines.
Masters degree in economics from Ateneo de Manila University
Doctorate in economics from the University of the Philippines.Family: Married to lawyer-businessman Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo. The couple has three children: Mikey, Luli and Dato.
Political background: Daughter of former Philippines President Diosdado Macapagal
1986 >> Undersecretary of Trade and Industry during President Corazon Aquino's administration.
1992 >> Elected to Philippines Senate
1998 >> Elected vice president of the Philippines
2001 >> Sworn in as president following a Supreme Court decision that the office was vacant and the second peaceful people power revolution that ousted former President Joseph Estrada over charges of corruption.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
A police investigator searched for clues yesterday inside a bus at Camp Karingal in Quezon City, Philippines. Two people were killed after a bomb exploded on the bus Friday night.
MANILA, Philippines >> Bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled rail station entrances and police conducted random vehicle searches as officials stepped up security yesterday in Manila, shaken by the latest terrorist blast to hit the Philippines. Bombs put Philippines
on jittery alertAssociated Press
Seeking to ease the jitters, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appealed for calm in a national radio and television address, saying the Philippines wouldn't be bullied by terrorists.
"A few troublemakers with limited capabilities are trying to bully 80 million Filipinos into living in fear and terror," Arroyo said. "Let us not be cowed into submission."
The president then offered advice to the public: "Keep calm. Be alert," she said.
Her address followed a security meeting that was first scheduled for tomorrow after two bombs exploded Thursday in southern Zamboanga city, killing seven people and injuring 152.
But the meeting was quickly rescheduled when a powerful blast ripped through a bus late Friday in suburban Manila, killing two people and injuring more than 20.
It was the fourth deadly explosion in the Philippines in two weeks.
In her national address, the president said police have prevented additional attacks, but she did not provide details.
Arroyo's office announced stricter security measures, including random checks of vehicles, malls and other public places, and the deployment of 1,700 police trainees in Manila.
Police distributed leaflets with emergency phone numbers, warning the public to be on the lookout for suspicious packages as well as potential hiding places for bombs.
National police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said investigators are trying to reassemble the device used in the bus blast from fragments.
A cell phone was being tested for traces of nitrates to determine whether it was used to ignite the bomb.
Police intelligence chief Rodolfo Delfin said passengers said that just before the blast a woman and a man got off the bus and a cell phone rang. Authorities have a sketch of a man in his 20s described as a "potential suspect," Ebdane said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bus bombing.
Meanwhile, Philippine police have captured a leader of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf who allegedly was involved in the kidnappings of Western tourists two years ago, officials said yesterday.
Mark Bolkerin Gumbahale, 21, also allegedly colluded with Indonesians linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Muslim group suspected of ties to al-Qaida, in a wave of bombings in Manila on Dec. 30, 2000.
The announcement came as the government claimed it killed five Muslim guerillas in two clashes in the southern Philippines.
