ZAMBOANGA CITY, 18 October 2003 — The crew of two US warships, part of an advance security force protecting President George W. Bush, have ignored calls by the Philippine Navy to identify themselves after a patrol boat spotted them off the southern Tawi-Tawi province, local security officials said.
A Philippine patrol boat PS 31 spotted a Wasp Class Landing Helicopter Dock and an Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer on Wednesday, about 10 nautical miles west of Sanga-Sanga island, but the crew of the two US warships ignored radio calls to identify themselves and vow numbers, officials said.
The US warships — which came from Australia — were about 3 nautical miles apart and it continued sailing toward Luzon in the northern Philippines despite a repeated radio calls by the Philippine Navy, officials said.
US Embassy officials in Manila were not immediately available to make comments.
The incident irritated Filipino security officials, who felt insulted by the refusals of the US warships’ crew to identify themselves and give their vow numbers as part of a routine inspection on vessels entering the Philippine territories.
The two US ships were flying American flags when they entered southern Philippines. President Bush is due to arrive today in Manila for a state visit.
While Bush and his entourage are to stay in Manila for only 8 hours, his visit is being trumpeted as a renewal of the close RP-US relationship, which turned sour in 1991 when the Philippine Senate rejected a proposed treaty seeking to extend the stay of US forces on Philippine bases for 10 more years.
Manila has lavishly prepared for the state visit, even putting up billboards to hide eyesores along roads where Bush is expected to pass.
It has mobilized tens of thousands of police and soldiers to amid fears of attacks by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels and the Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiya, which are tied to terror network of Osama Bin Laden.
US forces announced last week that they have deployed two EP3 Orion spy planes in the southern Philippines to monitor the security situation there.
The Philippines is a key ally of the United States on its war on international terrorism and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was one of the first world leader to openly condemn the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in Washington and New York, and support the US war on Iraq.
Communist guerrillas said yesterday, however, that they have no plans of mounting an assassination attempt on the US leader.
“If you are asking if we will mount a military action, after the military and the police warned that an NPA team will assassinate George Bush, that is not among our plans today, tomorrow or in the coming days,” Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesman Gregorio Rosal said over DZBB radio, referring to the NPA, his party’s armed wing.
“It is true that George Bush is our enemy, but that step is not among the protest actions that we are eyeing,” said Rosal.
The CPP and the 9,000-member NPA has been waging a 34-year Maoist campaign in this former US colony. The US State Department considers the CPP-NPA a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Rosal urged Filipinos to join street protests against the “imperialist United States” and its “puppet” Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
