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The United States is unlikely to impose sanctions on the Philippines in terms of military assistance and training even though it was disappointed with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's decision to pull out troops from Iraq, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Thursday.
Ermita said in a press conference that the US government would not resort to the sanction or withdraw its relations with the Philippine government because of its interests in the country.
One of the US interests in Manila, cited by Ermita, is the presence of international and local terrorists which has link with the Southeast Asian regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The Philippines' defense and military establishments can provide their US counterpart with intelligence information on al-Qaeda, which was suspected of being responsible for the Sept. 11,2001 attacks in New York and Washington, Ermita said."The alliance of every country has purposes. The Americans are giving us assistance because they have their interests on us," he said.
Although the US ambassador Francis Ricciardone has pledged tha this country is still to "maintain their close relations" with the Philippines, the defense department, as Ermita said, is on a wait and see attitude if the Americans would deliver their assistance they pledged for the past years.
"Let us see what would be its (pull out) effect on the assistance they have promised," he said.
Ermita also said that Americans, on the other hand, have been helping their Filipino counterpart in the field of training. "They (Americans) are helping us in training, all against international terrorism. That (continued relations with Philippines) is good to them (Americans) so I think whatever their actions will be, they should study carefully their alliance with us," he added.
Ermita revealed that Ricciardone asked him during a call last Thursday whether there was anything the United States could do to persuade the Philippine government to reconsider its pullout decision.
Ricciardone tried to "stall" their conversation by mentioning various projects that the US engineers are planning to do in Manila, the secretary said.
Up to the moment, Ermita said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo still considered the pullout decision, which was made as early as July 10 or two days after Iraqi militants seized Angelode la Cruz, as the best move to save the hostage.
The contingent, 43 soldiers and eight policemen, which were due to end their mission in Iraq on Aug. 20, were completely withdrawn one month earlier for the hostage's safe release. The remaining members of the humanitarian contingent, who are now in Kuwait for the airplane tickets, are said to return on Monday after 11 have already arrived in Manila this week.
(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2004)
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