Manila concerned over scrapping of war games

MANILA, Dec 23 (Reuters) Washington's decision to cancel annual military exercises with the Philippines was a setback for relations, Manila said today, but a spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroya said she understood Washington's reasons.

Yesterday, the US announced it was pulling the plug on large-scale joint military exercises with the Philippines next year in an escalating dispute over custody of a US Marine convicted of raping a local woman.

The marine is currently in jail in the Philippines, but Washington insists that under the so called Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) it has signed with Manila he should be in US custody.

''The cancellation of these exercises are a setback to our military modernisation programme, the interoperability of Philippine and US forces and to the strategic alliance of both countries,'' said Ignacio Bunye, a spokesman for Arroyo, in a statement.

Thousands of US troops were expected to participate in the annual ''Balikatan'' (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games late next month to test the interoperability of the two countries' armed forces in dealing with common conventional security threats.

Bunye said Manila understood how Washington felt over the custody issue involving Lance Corporal Lance Smith, sentenced by a local court to life imprisonment for raping a 23 year-old woman inside a van last year.

He said the Philippine government was firmly committed to the 1998 VFA and was taking steps to return the sailor to the US embassy's custody as soon as possible ''under our judicial processes''.

''We are not making excuses for the apparent non-compliance with the VFA but we have to seek relief through the justice system that defines the rule of law,'' Bunye said, appealing to Washington to understand how the system works in Manila.

The United States, which ruled the poor Southeast Asian state for about 50 years from the turn of the 20th century, has poured nearly 500 million dollars in military aid to the Philippines since 2000 and sent hundreds of advisers to train local troops fight Muslim militants.

REUTERS LL VV1536