Philippines, US to set up new security pact

MANILA, May 23 (Reuters) Security officials from the United States and the Philippines will create a new pact this week to deal with militants, pirates, natural disasters, disease and other non-military threats, officials said today.

The United States, a former colonial ruler of the Southeast Asian country, has been a major source of military aid for the poorly funded Philippine armed forces in the form of training and hardware such as rifles, gunboats and helicopters.

Washington has poured in more than 300 million dollars in security assistance since 2000. In addition it has given funds to build roads, schools and water systems in poor communities seen as breeding grounds for communist rebels and Islamic militants.

''We're formalising the creation of a Special Engagement Board to deal with the non-traditional security threats we're facing,'' a senior Philippine defence official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

''This is a new mechanism and framework to address the emerging threats such as piracy, terrorism, transnational crime and bird flu.'' Philippine security forces have been fighting communist and Muslim insurgencies since the late 1960s and, more recently, the influx and influence of regional militants with ties to al Qaeda.

In a recent interview with Reuters, Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz said Manila and Washington had completed the exchange of notes to implement the new security platform, supplementing their existing treaty signed in 1951.

''We are going to launch it on May 24,'' Cruz had told Reuters when he joined defence ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations in Kuala Lumpur this month.

The senior defence official told Reuters the new arrangement would also expand the role of other agencies engaged in security work, such as the foreign affairs, interior, justice and national security departments.

''It could be a response to the need of the times,'' security analyst Rex Robles, a retired navy commodore, told Reuters, saying the new mechanism may ''fill up the gap'' left by a treaty crafted five decades ago.

But he urged the government to make the new agreement public, noting that resistance to a foreign military presence in the country was strong.

''Why was the public, and our lawmakers, kept in the dark about this new security arrangement?'' Robles said.

REUTERS SHR KP1725