U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone Remarks
Foreign Correspondents of the Philippines
January 24, 2005
The Manila Hotel

Thank you very much once again for hosting me here. It’s a pleasure to be with the members of the Foreign and Overseas Correspondents Association of the Philippines for the 5th time, by my reckoning. We’ve got a pretty good track record of meeting about every six months as I begin my fourth year in the Philippines. Isn’t that amazing? It’s the outset of a new year, a bright new year full of promises and challenges and it’s a bright, early morning, I know for people in your trade. My apologies for getting you up so early. For me it’s already late in my day.

I hope you’ve seen my short article congratulating you in FOCAP on your 30th anniversary – your third decade. In it I recalled some of the livelier episodes we’ve had together, some of which led to colorful headlines. I’ve always enjoyed our chats, and now that I’ve come to understand that my job here is, from your perspective, to add content -- I’ve enjoyed them all the more. And I’ll try to make sure that, while you do your part in adding the color, I’ll give you some content today and hope you leave contented.

As always, this is a no-holds-barred conversation, and please do mercilessly take advantage of it and ask me whatever you’d like. I’d like to take a few minutes at the outset to cover some of the points that I think are uppermost in all our minds.

First, what does President Bush’s new term mean for Philippines-American relations? Like most Filipinos and Americans, I’m an optimist by nature. So you won’t be surprised that I find only positive signs in the parallel renewal, in the same year, of the American people’s mandate for President Bush, and the Filipino people’s constitutional mandate for President Arroyo. I expect that, just as each of our countries will draw fresh dynamism from our own democratic renewals, so also together will our partnership advance with even greater energy and accomplishments for our mutual security, prosperity, and service to our two great peoples.

During his first term, President Bush emphasized strengthening and revitalizing our alliances, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. He demonstrated his support for this country and its leadership during his State visit to the Philippines a year and a half ago, and most recently in an extended and cordial dinner conversation with President Arroyo in Chile just two months ago. We can expect the same warm attention, I think, to our shared Asian-Pacific interests in President Bush’s second term.

The President’s nominee to succeed Secretary Powell, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, not only visited us in the Philippines during the 2003 State visit, but she also traveled a few months ago to Japan, South Korea, and China. And FOCAP members must have been as gratified as I was to hear Dr. Rice cite the Philippines among the few countries she named as she testified last week before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She said “from the Philippines, to Colombia, to the nations of Africa, we are strengthening counter terrorism cooperation with nations that have the will to fight terror, but need help with the means.”

Likewise, President Bush’s nominee as Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, is no stranger to the Philippines. He visited here in November 2002, offering to work even more deliberately with your Government and private sector to remove barriers to trade and investment between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines and other ASEAN trading partners –- to include working together on a Free Trade Agreement -- whenever your leaders may decide that that’s what they would like to do. The “Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative” that Bob Zoellick offered over two years ago remains on the table.

With fresh energy on both sides, surely 2005 prospectively looks like a year that can mark historic accomplishment. But it also is a year for retrospective commemoration, as we mark the 60th anniversary of so many of the seminal events, I should say the culminating events, in the liberation of the Pacific in World War II. Two weeks ago I was privileged to join former President Ramos, Secretary Romulo, Senator Gordon, and the leaders and good people of Pangasinan to recall the Allied landing at Lingayen. This coming Sunday, those Filipino leaders and I will visit Nueva Ecija to salute the heroism of the Filipino resistance under the legendary Joson, and the U.S. Rangers under Col. Mucci, in liberating the prisoners from the death camps at Cabanatuan.

Over this coming month, we will witness a series of events to recall the countless lives sacrificed in the liberation of Manila. Our series of WWII commemorations will conclude in September in Baguio, site of Yamashita’s final surrender of Japanese forces in the Philippines. Karen Kelley can provide you the details of all these events, and I hope FOCAP members will choose to witness them. For through these rites, we re-dedicate ourselves and our generation to earning the freedom and security that our parents and grandparents redeemed for us at such terrifying cost; and we resolve to pass on that legacy to our own children, whatever the sacrifice requires.

Late last year, we witnessed the wrath of nature as typhoons pounded the Philippines and a tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean, causing unimaginable destruction in several nations. In both hours of need, the United States acted quickly and generously with other nations to provide relief. Here in the Philippines, the United States allocated more than one and a half million dollars to assist the typhoon victims. But just as importantly, United States Forces, including ships, airplanes, and helicopters, assisted the Armed Forces of the Philippines in delivering emergency relief to the people of Quezon, Rizal, and Aurora provinces.

American and Filipino soldiers succeeded in this joint operation thanks to the inter-operability that we have built and that we sustain through recurrent annual exercises under the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1999; thanks also to the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement that we signed in 2003; and thanks, also, to our mutual recognition of the jurisdiction of each other’s courts – not an unaccountable third party -- over our respective nationals in such operations and exercises.
Thus, the successful emergency relief delivered to Filipino typhoon victims was just one of the most recent and visible fruits of the mutual defense alliance that President Estrada had updated through the VFA, and which Presidents Bush and Arroyo further advanced in their respective first administrations.

But our defense cooperation extends well beyond such disaster relief cooperation. FOCAP members have heard me say that the mission of the United States Embassy is to “revitalize and carry to maturity the United States-Philippines partnership and alliance.” When our friends are strong and secure, we, too, are stronger and more secure.

The bedrock strategic plan for our security cooperation well into the future is the Philippines Defense Reform initiative, launched by Presidents Bush and Arroyo. This program, to which the Philippine Government already has dedicated over $17 million dollars and my Government $7 million dollars, will improve training, procurement, finance, logistics, and information management. It will enable the Armed Forces of the Philippines to perform to their highest potential. It will greatly improve the AFP’s transparency and accountability from top to bottom. We have Col. Matt Velasco with us today from our Joint United States Military Assistance Group who will be able to go into some detail if you want to, on that subject.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines is a vital, pivotal institution of the Republic and its democracy. President Arroyo’s success against corruption in the AFP will prove that the Philippines can likewise strengthen all its democratic institutions –- in the three branches of government -- against those who would continue to steal from the citizens. We Americans admire the courage of such Filipino leaders as Secretary Cruz, General Abu, Ombudsman Marcelo, and Congressional National Defense Committee Chair Golez for sustaining the investigations and prosecutions of the several current AFP corruption cases. These and others of President Arroyo’s anti-corruption crusaders – people like Mercy Gutierrez, Connie de Guzman, Haydee Yorac – and Justices Davide and Panganiban in the Judiciary -- are determined to bring all government agencies to the “tipping point” at which “rampant honesty” and good governance can break out. Filipinos must lead, but count on the United States to help.
In this cause, in any democracy, a free, independent mass media has an indispensable role, through vigorous and rigorous investigative journalism. I know FOCAP members take this responsibility seriously. Though you are self-selected and not publicly elected, yours is truly a leadership responsibility, no less serious than that of elected officials, and appointed officials like myself, in a democracy.

Good governance, security and the rule of law are necessary conditions for creating and sustaining prosperity, and for attracting long-term and stable investment. But the reverse is also true: economic growth -- and liberalization to widen economic opportunity –- likewise are necessary to strengthen governance, security and the rule of law. Security and prosperity advance – or decline -- in tandem.

Hence the United States supports economic development and reform through many means. And if you want to go into greater detail on some of those, I have with me today our mission director of the United States Agency for International Development here in the Philippines, Dr. Michael Yates. Expanding trade and investment, as I mentioned earlier, is one important means. But so are the diverse programs managed by Dr. Yates and USAID – including a new partnership, beginning last year, to revive education, particularly in the conflict-affected areas of Mindanao. As we look ahead to the factors that give me most hope for the coming year, including for peace in Mindanao, I’d be glad to discuss these unfolding educational partnerships in greater detail.
President Bush has nearly doubled the United States overseas development assistance from about $10 billion in 2000 to about $19 billion in 2004. Moreover, we have sought to make our assistance more effective in liberating people from poverty, and from the oppression and lawlessness that can accompany it.

In this context, let me highlight one advance in our development assistance for the Philippines that holds particular promise for this year and beyond: the new candidacy of the Philippines for a threshold grant from the Millennium Challenge Initiative. The Vice President of the new U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, Clay Lowery, has been visiting us since last week. FOCAP members are warmly welcome to meet with him at our Embassy this afternoon to discuss what he has learned, and how he expects the Philippines might best exploit this initiative. From our intensive conversations with your government and private sector leaders last week, I see good possibilities for still more American support to their campaign to promote good governance and sound economic growth. I have every confidence that Filipinos not only can, but also will turn this country around in the next five years.

I hope FOCAP will also help address Filipino public interest in another American initiative that has produced great results last year, and promises much for our new year ahead. The United States Rewards for Justice program has supported the Armed Forces of the Philippines and law enforcement authorities of the Philippines in their substantial inroads against terrorists last year. A few months ago, the embassy paid three Basilan residents almost 19 million pesos each for information that enabled the Armed Forces of the Philippines to locate and capture an Abu Sayyaf leader, Hamsiraji Sali, who was killed in a subsequent firefight. Such “Rewards for Justice” are open to all Filipino private citizens worldwide, and foreigners too, who may provide information leading to the arrest of listed terrorists.

Finally, many of us in the Philippines and the United States have direct, personal interests, through friends and relatives, in the elections that will take place in Iraq in just six days. Gabby and I were talking about the return of his camera crew from Iraq recently. Through its presidency of the United Nations Security Council last June, the Philippines played a leading role in the unanimous vote of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1548. This is the roadmap, now rooted in international law, for the establishment of democracy in Iraq. Saturday’s elections will be the second major milestone in this journey, after UNSCR 1548 established the Iraqi Interim Government itself.
These elections are only one important step, however. It is much closer to the beginning than to the end of a long, difficult, costly, but historic and noble process of restoring and strengthening the basic human right of liberty to all Iraqis. These elections will yield local and regional government representatives and a Transitional National Assembly. The Transitional National Assembly, in turn, will elect an executive leadership, and will draft a constitution, which the Iraqi people will ratify through a referendum in October.

So here we are: at the threshold of an exciting year in Iraq, in the Philippines, in Ukraine, in the United States, in the world. I’d be glad to speak with you in whatever further detail or issues you might like, about how far we’ve come and where we think we might go in this bright new year.
Thank you very much for this opportunity. Let’s talk.

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U.S. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone before FOCAP
January 24, 2005
The Manila Hotel
Question and Answer Session

Q: Good morning Mr. Ambassador. Oliver Teves from the Associated Press. I was just struck by your – in the beginning of your statement, where you mentioned President Bush’s mandate and President Arroyo’s constitutional mandate. It’s as if you underscore the term “constitutional” in view of all these talks or rumors of destabilization. You know, coup attempts, etc. Is that a kind of a message that you want to underscore at this point -- that you want to send to groups planning, or thinking, or plotting to destabilize the government, underscoring the term constitution?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Well, if there’s a message, it’s a rather mundane one. It goes without saying that the United States, like I suppose all other countries in the world, recognizes the constitutional order in the Philippines. It is the only recognized order. We think this is a democracy that is well entrenched in its constitution. The constitution allows scope for change. I’m not worried about stability in this country. I’m worried about the opposite. I’m worried about the urgent need for change and the resistance to change. Kennedy said, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” So, when I say that the United States recognizes constitutional order, it doesn’t mean we don’t recognize the need for change. President Arroyo herself said in her New Year’s statement last year that “we must reform or perish.” That’s a call for revolution, really, for changing things, for turning things around. So, we not only sympathize with the desire of most Filipinos we meet, at all ranks of society, for change, but we support that through USAID and many other programs that we have here.

So, we have fine relations with responsible voices in the opposition that have contributed many things to this country. We think in your constitution there is plenty of room for opposing voices, not only to be heard, but actually to induce change and support change. But we think the Philippines is better than those who suggest that it is a country subject to coups and mob rule. My message, in a nutshell, is to give yourselves more credit than that -- like we do. We think more highly of your country, perhaps, than those who suggest that a couple of guys sitting in a bar over a couple of beers can foment rebellion.

Q: (Oliver Teves) You mentioned change also in the course of your opening statement, and you touched upon the subject of corruption, which many sectors have cited as a major problem in the country. Can you tell us whether, in your assessment, is the government is doing enough or should we be doing more, and in what areas? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I have to say I’m very encouraged, because not only is the government very active – even more active than I’ve seen it in my first three years here – but also the private sector is deeply involved, and very energetic, and they’re pulling together. I was with Ramon del Rosario and Bill Luz as they met with the Millennium Challenge Corporation Vice President -- describing what the private sector and a coalition of NGOs are doing in support of all those people in the government whom I named, and many more whom I didn’t name, to try to turn this country around when it comes to corruption. President Arroyo has invited Tony Kwok from the Hong Kong Independent Commission against Corruption – is that what it is called, Michael [Dr. Michael Yates, USAID Mission Director]? He’s come here several times. Hong Kong was a cesspit of corruption, some years ago, and dramatically turned around, and showed it can be done. And President Arroyo is taking the man who helped lead that and learning lessons from that, and energizing people here. Will it happen? I don’t know. But I’m pretty confident that in the five years left -- five and half years left -- in the Arroyo administration, it can happen, and will happen. It’s so necessary, and the United States is standing by to help. Again, if you come and have a conversation this afternoon with our Millennium Challenge visitors, I think you’ll see that there is potential for us to increase our support for the anti-corruption crusaders in this country.

Q: (Charmaine DeGracias-NHK). Charmaine here from NHK. May I get your comment on the increased military cooperation of the Philippines with China?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: You know, I’m not sure what you mean by increased military cooperation with China. Clearly, President Arroyo has made improving relations with China, Japan and the United States the priority for many years, since her first term. We understand that. It makes sense to us. It’s again not objectionable, it makes all the sense in the world. Within that, we’ll have to see what are the dimensions of cooperation. Certainly trade is going to be a huge one, naturally. And I know there have been military visits back and forth. I expect that will continue, but you know, it’s really up to the Governments of the Philippines and of China to describe how they’re going to improve their relations and in what areas, and what it means. So, I have to say I don’t have enough details on that.

Q: (Charmaine DeGracias) Okay, I’ll just make a follow up on that then. The Balikatan this year will include, among others, the area of Palawan as an exercise venue. It has been like two years already that we’re having it there. Can you tell us thrust now of Balikatan in the light of having it in Palawan for two years now?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: There may be an update and correction on that because of various commitments of U.S. forces around the world, including tsunami relief. But let me refer you to Col. Velasco on that, if I may. Matt, would you address that question?

COL. MATTHIAS VELASCO: I’d be happy to answer that question. We do not plan, in conjunction with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to go to Palawan this year, for a variety of reasons, one of which is the tsunami relief operations. We do intend to conduct civil affairs operations in Laguna, and also in some towns in Quezon, with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Doctors and nurses, both U.S. and AFP, will do medical civil affairs projects in those places, as well as some school renovations and a road renovation in Laguna.

Q: (Manny Mogato-Reuters) Good morning Mr. Ambassador. Manny Mogato from Reuters. I was just wondering about the U.S. reaction to calls in the Senate for a review of the Mutual Defense Treaty. I heard Senator Miriam Santiago is saying that the MDT is already outdated. It was forged in 1951 when the Cold War was still in place, and now there are new developments. And she was saying that some of the joint exercises and operations are done outside the MDT. These are the anti-terrorism and anti-drugs. Can you comment on these calls by the Senators?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I have no particular reaction. Senators, legislators around the world are free to review whatever they want. They’re in a free country and that’s what they should do. We’re certainly glad to provide any information on anything that we’re doing, to anyone in the Philippines who wants to know. We just had a question about Balikatan and Col. Velasco answered it in detail. So, if any senator or congressman has questions, we’re glad to answer them.

Q: (Many Mogato) Do you think there’s a need to review the MDT in the light of new world order?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I think any party to any treaties should always keep them under review, and consider what makes sense for the parties, individually and jointly. And I see nothing alarming or worrisome about a legislature in any country, particularly in a democracy like the Philippines, wanting to take another look at its relations around the world, or any aspect of them. That’s what foreign relations committees do. That’s what ours do. So, yours should, too.

Q: (Manny Mogato) Can I just have one question? In relation to the counter terrorism activities being done by the U.S. and the Philippines in Mindanao. There was a report that the actual target of the air strikes conducted by the military in November in Datu Piang were two suspects in the Bali bombing, two Indonesians who were hiding in the area. And I think it was through the assistance of the U.S. that the local military were able to track them down there. Can you give us any information whether there is an ongoing exercise or activity between the U.S. and the Philippines to hunt down foreign militants in Mindanao? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Yes, in general there is ongoing cooperation in what we call and what President Arroyo has called “ops-intel fusion.” That means using our knowledge of how to bring intelligence and operations closer together in real time, using technology and organization, and computerization and so forth. So, we have a few people, a handful in various -- in the order of what? 70 or so? -- people that work with the Southern Command in particular, to help bring intelligence …. Many of the reports are of course Filipino reports, and others are intelligence that we sometimes can supply. So, we bring it together, and bring it to the disposal of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and law enforcement authorities in real time. That’s what we do as an ally and friend, within your country’s request of us. As to the specific case you mentioned, I’d rather leave it to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippines’ National Police to describe individual operations that they’re carrying out.

Q: (Abby Tan-Christian Science Monitor) Ambassador, can you comment on media reports coming out yesterday from Washington that Donald Rumsfeld is going to create a super spy agency for covert operations in some countries, including the Philippines?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: It’s never a good idea for a U.S. ambassador in a foreign country to comment on “Inside-the-Beltway” stories like that. You know, the Defense Department has a lot of smart people planning all sorts of smart things all the time. I noticed the Defense Department’s Larry DiRita has denied that story. I think the only thing I can do is let the Defense Department explain what it’s up to in its own words.

Q: (Abby Tan) Is there a campaign in the U.S. against Donald Rumsfeld? Recently he has been seen as having quarrels with media in the U.S. and certainly in Asia he’s been more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: (Laughter) I hope so. I hope he’s more dangerous that Osama Bin Laden, that he will be a threat to people like Osama Bin Laden. That’s the whole point. We want a Defense Secretary who is a threat -- to our enemies of course. But honestly I don’t know – I can’t comment on alleged media campaigns. Again, that is Inside-the-Beltway political stuff. It’s all speculative, and it’s sort of salon gossip: fun, but at the end of the day, not very meaningful.

Q: (Ronald Meynardos – Deutsche Welle) Yes, Ronald Meynardos. I report for Public Radio in Germany. Mr. Ambassador, we hear that in February the peace talks will resume in Kuala Lumpur. Can you give us an assessment from the American angle as to the process that is going on?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Well, we certainly wish success to the peace process in Muslim Mindanao between the MILF and the Government. We’ve long since pledged to do everything we can to support the parties. We certainly commend others who have taken a lead to help them out. The Government of Malaysia has done wonderful things to bring the parties together. We salute that. President Bush commissioned the U.S. Institute of Peace to provide whatever benefit of its experience it can provide, from having been involved in conflict resolution around the world over many years. And that’s at the disposal of the two parties. USIP has met with the Government of the Philippines and members of the MILF in the past year and a half now, and we’ll see what develops from that.

Our concern is not merely to get a piece of paper, a peace accord. What we want to see is a peace that will be durable and that will permit development to go ahead. Not just development assistance. That’s important. But ultimately private economic activities, investment…and not just foreign investment, but also domestic investment. There are pockets of that happening throughout Muslim Mindanao. I find it very hopeful. Last week, some colleagues of ours, some USAID people and some others from the Embassy, were in Datu Paglas, working with a group of Philippines companies and NGOs. We’ve just cut a ribbon on another major advancement in the educational sector, where we are bringing televised education to remote areas in conflict-affected areas in Muslim Mindanao. We can only do that though in conflict-affected areas, where the effects are not so dire that we can’t get in and work. Datu Paglas is an island of calm, and peace, and wisdom, because of great local leadership.

We think there are other places in MILF-land that want development., and want not only development assistance, but also want investment in trade, and in education for their children. So, that’s what we mean by peace. Not just stasis, not just a ceasefire, but actually a revolutionary change, and advances. But revolution without bombing market places, revolution without kidnapping. If the MILF turns out to decide it wants to pursue the historic cause of the Bangsamoro people in an effective, peaceful political way, then I think they’ll find that they have friends around the world who would like to come and invest in their area, and do development assistance and so forth. But if elements of them, who still want to call themselves the MILF, are going to hide bombers from Bali, as one gentleman cited in a press report this morning, or to train bombers, or to hide kidnappers, or get involved in the drug trade, then the law enforcement and security forces of the Philippines will go after them. And we are going to help them, with substantial ops-intel fusion, as we just talked about, and with the Rewards for Justice program as I mentioned. We’re going to help. And just like last year, we’re going to keep making inroads, and the kidnappers and bombers, at the end of the day, are going to lose. They have been losing. Last year, they were set back. This year, they will be set back more.
Q: (Ronald Meynardos) May I follow up on this? So, you’re talking about the economic and the military aspects. Can you be a little more precise and detailed regarding your diplomatic and political efforts regarding the process that we are reading will happen in the Malaysian capital?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Yes. On the diplomatic side, the Government of Malaysia has taken the lead. The parties have made clear that they’re happy with that. They appreciate American support, as we understand their positions. They appreciate American support, but don’t want us driving the train, and I believe that’s correct. The parties to the conflict ought to be the ones taking the lead in resolving it, and we would be glad to stand by with our -- not only our development assistance, as I mentioned; not only our assistance when it comes to combating terrorism, as I just mentioned; but also with our expertise, or that of the U.S. Institute of Peace, in how other people who have been in historic conflicts have come out the other side and made a go of it.

From South Africa to Argentina to the Balkans to places in Iraq, USIP has been active, and has learned lessons that may well apply on how you resolve ancient conflicting claims to land, and water; how you resolve competing legal systems; how you do de-mining and demobilization, all in ways that don’t imply the surrender of a cause. We’ve seen that work around the world, and we can see how that might work in Mindanao. So, we’re standing by, ready to help. So far, we’ve played a back-burner kind of role, and we’re eager to do more, if and when the parties want the USIP more frontally involved.

Q: (Gabby Tabuñar- CBS). When you talk about insurgency, Mr. Ambassador, the Government and the Philippine Armed Forces consider the Communist insurgency as the top priority in their worry list. How does the United States stand on this? Do you think as some Filipinos think, do you think the Communists really want peace?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: You know, I honestly don’t know. I have not had direct contact with them. I guess I’d go back to the Kennedy quote that I made earlier: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.” From my own understanding – I admit I’m no expert -- it seems to me that the NPA and the Communists, and these professors who live abroad and so forth, are the kind of people who are not advancing revolution, a revolution that must happen actually, but they are standing in its way.

They’re preventing the kinds of systemic change that need to happen to open economic opportunity, to enfranchise people who have been marginalized in this country for so long. And by having this sort of rear guard campaign that hasn’t gone anywhere in decades, it seems to me they’re standing in the way of a real, and successful, and genuine, and needed “revolution,” as Kennedy called it. “Reform,” as President Arroyo has called it, that must go forward. And they’re condemning the country, therefore, to this violence that is leading nowhere. That is not helping the little guy. So, I hope the NPA will come around and the Communist Party will come around and go legit. Why not? Why shouldn’t that be another great legacy of the next five years of this Government in the Philippines? We’d love to see that happen.

Q: (Jason Gutierrez-AFP) Jason from AFP. I would like to clarify something you said earlier. You said that if the MILF hide bombers or if they bomb markets, U.S. intelligence operatives are going to help local law enforcement agencies to go after them. Are you essentially saying that if the peace talks do not push through, and if the government declares an all out war against the MILF, the United States will be backing that, and to what extent?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Be a little careful in interpreting what I said. I didn’t say “U.S. intelligence operatives.” The intelligence work we’re doing is helping with Filipino intelligence and some help that we can provide through technical means. I didn’t say there are “U.S. intelligence operatives” running around. We are on the side of the Government of the Philippines, no question about it, when it comes to combating terrorism. So, if elements of people are into kidnapping, bombing or attacking Filipino citizens, who is there to protect them, if not the Philippines Armed Forces and PNP? We’re going to be standing there with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP to try to protect the innocent people against those bombers.

Now, if they call themselves the MILF, then I guess they’re the MILF, unless the MILF leadership disavows association with them. If they call themselves NPA when they murder, you know -- mayors, and businessmen, then you know they’re NPA. We don’t know who these people are. But we would like to see terrorism in this country stopped. We’ve seen some real progress in this past year and we see the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the PNP developing their capabilities. And we are definitely going to stand with our allies in training them, and equipping them, and helping with techniques and organization to make sure that intelligence gets to the policemen and the soldiers who go after the bad guys.

Q: (Jason Gutierrez) With the recent attacks by the MILF on government forces in Mindanao, how positive are you that the peace talks that are set to resume in February will actually bear fruit?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Well, all I can judge from is that both the Government and the MILF spokesman have said publicly, that this was an aberrant thing. It wasn’t sanctioned by the MILF. Both sides condemned it, and they intend to go ahead with their peace talks. So that’s certainly a good outcome, as far as we’re concerned. We’re sorry that such an event took place, but we’re glad that the peace process is continuing.

Q: (Nelly Sindayen-TIME) On another issue, Mr. Ambassador. There are some people who believe that the Philippines doesn’t actually have a population control program. Do you agree with that? Are you satisfied with how the Philippines is pursuing, if it’s pursuing at all, the population control program?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’d say the question is really one for Filipinos to decide, whether they’re satisfied with the national program or not. We’re helping in what we understand to be the approach of the Philippines’ Government, which is to devolve the national program to Local Government Units, and let local governments take the lead.

Filipinos need to decide whether this ought to be a central government function or not. The fact is, so far the President has decided this is a local government initiative. We do work with Secretary Dayrit, to the extent that the national government has been doing some things. There is a certain degree of education going on. We’re trying to get out of the business of supplying free contraceptives, because we think that creates dependence rather than independence, and we’re trying to help with the education campaign so that the huge unmet need, that poll after poll shows exists in this country -- so that huge unmet need can be met from Filipinos’ resources, private and public, and that need can be met from a variety of ways.

Each couple should choose what is consistent with their faith and their traditions, and these range from modern effective means of contraception to the more traditional ones that the Church has advocated. Even the Church itself has different voices that have more sophisticated approaches to the options that couples have to promote responsible parenting. So, we’re doing a lot.

We’ve got a program. Mike, you can explain – I seem to recall that 17 million dollars is the round figure for the amount that we have behind it. We have Carina Stover, a public health officer who is working on this program. She came with me to FOCAP, I think last time we met, and I’d be glad to make her available to you anytime you’d like to talk about this issue in detail. Do you want to follow up, Mike, on any details of the population program? We think it’s an important problem. We’d like to see the program get stronger and be more effective to meet the needs of Filipinos.

Q: (Nelly Sindayen) That’s probably one sector that the President is having difficulty implementing. Perhaps she has to be pushed or pressured into doing so?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: (Laughter) I’m sure the President, as a leader in a democracy, faces no end of pressures and pushes. That’s a fact of life when you’re a democratically elected leader. Some people are pressing you to do one thing and then there are some pressing to do something else. At the end of the day, you’re paid the big bucks to make the hard decisions and to take some criticisms from the party that is not happy.

Q: (Nelly Sindayen) But surely the world’s powerful nation can probably put a little pressure on her slowness?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: (Laughter) We don’t “pressure” our friends. We support. (Laughter). “Pressure” is pushing down. We’d like to support.

Q: (Nelly Sindayen) Pushing up? (Laughter)

GABBY TABUNAR: I think what she’s really asking you is, as a young developing nation, the Philippines – we have too many people, don’t we? Do you agree?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: (Laughter). Filipinos have to decide whether there are too many people. How can the United States possibly tell another country you’ve got too few people or too many people? We can’t do that. Only you can do that. But you can take a look around you, and see how the country has changed in the past couple of decades, and decide whether an expanding population is outstripping or outpacing your resources. On the face of it, your country exports people as your principal export. Ten percent of your population has to go abroad to earn a living. That would suggest that you’ve got to do something about that, unless you think that’s normal and desirable. It seems to me a variety of steps are necessary to have a more normal situation, and one of them could include a healthy, moderate rate of population growth. But you have to decide what that rate is.

Q: Well said. (Laughter)

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: (Laughter) The President said it’s 1.9%. How is she going to get there?

Q: (Oliver Teves) …. operatives running around in the South looking for terrorists. But on the other hand you also said that there are some U.S. military at any one time. I think the figure, if I heard you mention, about 70?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Around or about 70, something like…

Q: Yeah. That helps in the operations – intelligence fusion work down there…

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: And training.

Q: Yeah. Doesn’t that constitute, you know, although they might not be running around chasing after terrorists, but isn’t that actually helping them find them? Isn’t it?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: No. Your troops and your policemen are the ones doing the chasing, and are on the front lines. We don’t do any of that stuff. Your Government has not asked us do it, so we don’t do it. We provide such help as General Braganza and the other commanders down there deem useful and necessary, consistent with their instructions from their political leadership under President Arroyo. There are clear lines against Americans, you know, going after terrorists. We can’t do that. This is your country. Your shooters go after them. Your law enforcement officers. We stand back from that, and we try to enable them by helping with the training, advice, intelligence, and that sort of thing. For example, you know that we’ve had some specialized navy units there, training up your sea-born anti-terrorist units. We have land-based people who work on land-based skills. So, there are more skills, and strengthening of command and control. These are stuff that are done in the rear, rather than front line activities. Those are done by your forces.

Q: Follow up…since the Zamboanga-Basilan Balikatan that was almost two or three years ago…no, three years ago in 2002 -- you’ve had troops in the South. I think there has been no break where no troops, no U.S. troops have been present there. Isn’t that a kind of going around the provisions of relevant treaties or agreements like the VFA and the Mutual Defense Treaty?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I don’t believe so. Your Government doesn’t believe so. Your lawyers don’t believe so, because they’re not – they’ve not been continuously there, in the sense of a fixed contingent. After the Balikatan 02-1, we ramped that down very quickly by the end of 2002. I think that’s the maximum – do you remember Matt -- how many we had, a thousand or something? Something like 800. We ramped it down. We’ve had a series of different exercises coming and going, for short periods of time, always not just co-located, but integrated with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, for specific short-term tasks under the Visiting Forces Agreement. They’re visiting. Anytime you want them to go, say the word and they’re gone. They’re gone. We don’t have a base. No permanent structures. None of the microscopic territory they’re on is under our management, much less control. They’re strictly there as temporary guests of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and anytime you want them out, just say the word and they’re gone.

Q: Dana Batnag, Japanese Press. Sir, I wanted to clarify this intel fusion activity. Is this an extended exercise under the past Balikatan or is this an independent exercise that is being undertaken?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: We’ve had a series of different exercises aimed at specific skill sets. I guess it’s a definitional issue. What would you say, Matt? I guess it’s a continuous program.

Q: Is this an extension of Balikatan?

COL. VELASCO: It’s part of Project Bayanihan and so of the Mutual Defense Board.

Q: So, this was the second or third extension under Balikatan?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: No, not Balikatan. Bayanihyan.

Q: Yes.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: They’re calling this particular project Bayanihan.

Q: Is this under last year’s Bayanihan and it was extended? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: We have what? Sixteen exercises or projects in a given year? Twelve, 16 whatever it is.

COL. VELASCO: (Off mike:) Sixteen to 24 a year.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: And this one is ongoing. And as I say, it’s temporary. Anytime Gen. Braganza decides it’s not useful, you know, we can sure use our soldiers elsewhere these days – between tsunamis, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Q: (Gabby Tabunar) I think that this is the point that Senator Santiago is making the other day, referred to by Manny, by somebody, that counter terrorism and all these going on right now are outside the vocabulary of the modern treaty that supervises all these things, the Mutual Defense Treaty. That is what she was saying.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: That’s a good thing. You know, this is a democracy. It’s a constitutional democracy. People have to study these questions. You’re asking the right ones. This is what you should be doing. You should be asking these questions. A senator should be asking these questions and debate them, and decide, and whenever you decide this is wrong for your country, is not in accordance with your constitution, it doesn’t help make your country stronger, tell us, and we will leave. We’re your allies and friends. We think we’re in something together here, and we can only do things if we agree to do them, and they make sense. When you don’t think it makes sense, tell us and we’ll go.

Q: (Nelly Sindayen) So without U.S. support, can the Philippine military hack it, especially in its fight against terrorism?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: The Philippines’ military decides what it needs and wants from us, and we do our best to meet those requirements. We can’t meet all the requirements that they’ve put on us, so they have to prioritize them and we prioritize against what we think is we can supply, whether it’s equipment, or ops-intel fusion. But you know, it’s a loaded question the way you put it. We believe the United States can’t go it alone in the world, so why should it be an odd thing for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to request outside help? We need friends and allies. Condoleezza Rice herself has said that. Alliances make us strong. Alliances help the world community of democracies, of countries that believe in the rule of law; alliances help us survive against not just terrorists, but other global criminals – traffickers in people, international narco-traffickers. If we don’t hang together, we’re all going to suffer individually. So, sure, it’s logical that the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the PNP, should ask for help from us, and we ask help from them, when we find out about bad people coming in from the United States here. We work together.

Q: (Charmaine DeGracias) If I may go back to the MILF and the peace process. Both the Government and the MILF have admitted that there are factions within the MILF that are opposed to the peace process. And one evidence was the attack recently in the military detachment there, and no less that the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said that some members of the MILF are harboring terrorist leaders like Janjalani. I’d like to get your comment or reaction. How do you suppose, in terms of your counter terrorism assistance and under your USAID, USIP peace initiative, how do you suppose you should react to this?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Maybe there’s another way of looking at this issue, and we can do it in the context of another important issue in the Philippines, and that is intellectual property rights. “Branding” is a problem in this country. People have fakes all the time. People claim to have a real Timex, or a real Sony or a real Rolex, whatever it is. You know, who is the real MILF? There is an MILF “branding” that is someone’s intellectual property. We thought it was Hashim Salamat’s intellectual property, and now there seem to be people who are kidnapping or bombing, which Hashim Salamat said he wasn’t going to be doing anymore, who are still calling themselves MILF. So, who owns the MILF brand and logo? I don’t know. I really don’t know. Who gets the right to print those, you know, little badges. I have one in my office, the MILF and MNLF logo badges. Who has the right to give them out?

Q: (Nelly Sindayen) Some say the MILF has at least four faces.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’ve heard four. I’ve heard nine. I’ve heard 16. All of them are good, kind of magical numbers. I really don’t know what the right number is. So, it’s a serious question. If you’re negotiating with a group, who is that group really? Are they 10,000 fighters that have accepted the discipline? Or 3,000 that accept the discipline of the negotiations, and another 3,000 who don’t, and another 3,000 or 4,000 who are making up their minds? I don’t know, but it makes negotiations really very difficult.

Q: (Charmaine DeGracias) But with that serious question, where does that put the U.S. role in this? Like in terms of your counter-terrorism assistance, and then your USAID assistance?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Right. That’s why we take a very pragmatic approach. On the level of the political negotiations: we support them. And to the extent that there is an organization called the MILF that can make a deal and stick to it with a recognized government -- that’s great. We want to see that go forward. But we recognize this is a muddy situation, so we work in those neighborhoods in Mindanao where people we want education. Where people want micro-finance. Where they want family health clinics. Where they want farm-to-market roads, small bridges, irrigation; where they want solar dryers, where they want to have dialogue and conferences -- the kinds of things that we support. Wherever the people want that badly enough, and will keep the bombers away, we’re prepared to work.

You know, I personally met with representatives of the Bangsamoro Development Agency two years ago now. They struck me as people who want all of those things. They want to do development work. They’re business people. They’d like to encourage other business people, even Americans, as well as other Filipinos to come and develop agricultural post-harvest facilities there, so they can make money together. Wherever there are people who want to do those things, we’re prepared to do it with them. But I go back to the point I made before: Wherever there are people who want to commit murder and kill, and bomb and destroy, those people are our enemies. They’re the enemies of the Filipino people, they’re the enemies of the Maguindanaoans, and the Maranaoans, and the Taosugs, and they’re our enemies too. And we’re going to work with the communities that want those people out of there, to try and protect them.

Q: Just a follow up. One last follow up. It doesn’t seem to be like the fake or branding issue, but what happens now is like there is no denial of membership, or, “we don’t deny that they’re like members, but that there’s like a thing we don’t sanction that certain activity or a terrorist attack, we don’t sanction that,” but they don’t usually deny the membership of those who perpetrated such acts. So, how do you react to that?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: That’s a creative use of intellectual property. It’s trying to have your cake and eat it too. So it confuses the issue. It confuses us. I don’t think it advances the formal political process. If the identity is not clear, and the commitment and the contours of an organization aren’t clear, it makes it very hard to negotiate. Everyone knows what the Government of the Philippines is. If the Government of the Philippines agrees, in a peace process, that it would withdraw the Armed Forces of the Philippines, then all in the world would it know if it’s keeping its commitment. You can’t have pretend soldiers of the Armed Forces who are sometimes soldiers, sometimes not. They’re either Armed Forces of the Philippines or not. Can you say the same on the MILF side? I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that.

Q: Ambassador, You are emphasizing the importance of international corporation, the alliances on the parts of governments now also linked internationally, and I would like to have your government’s assessment regarding the international dimensions of terrorism in the southern Philippines, but also the Southeastern Asian region, particularly with reference to JI – which is a brand name for terrorism beyond the shores of Indonesia.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Terrorism clearly is an international problem. There are, at a minimum, affinity groups if not outright franchises of al-Qaeda operating around the world. In Southeast Asia, they operate across borders difficult to control. People sneak in and out of the various countries here relatively freely. It takes some skill, but they manage. There are fake documents which are a problem in this part of the world. Money can escape formal controls, so we’re working hard on anti-money laundering regimes. As long as people can move people, arms, and money outside of state controls, then there’s an opportunity not only for international terrorists but also for drug dealers, traffickers in people, arms dealers, and so forth. Clearly there are those links. Clearly there are foreigners running around in the Philippines.

You know, people are very concerned about friendly, allied forces who operate in the Philippines under treaty and under the invitation of the Government. You get nationalists, so-called nationalists, who worry about that, and rightly so. They should be worried, they should scrutinize it, and demand an accounting from us. But the same nationalists, so-called nationalists, sometimes seem less worried about people sneaking in without having proper papers, and without having a Republic of the Philippines stamp in their passports. And there are those people who sneak in through various ports in Mindanao and elsewhere, and who are violating the sovereignty of this country, who do not recognize Filipino law as applying to them, if they’re in Liguasan Marsh or Mount Kararaw, or any of these places down there. It’s a serious concern.

Q: Do you see or do you have evidence for linkage between Middle Eastern terrorism and Southeast Asian terrorism?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Yes, there are flows of funds, and flows of people sometimes who go back and forth. In the past, there have been what I would call anti-educational campaigns funded and inspired from the Gulf. I don’t believe the Arab governments support any of these initiatives, but some people in the Arab world have come and taught hate and intolerance in Mindanao, contrary to the traditions of Islam in the entire world, I would say, but especially in Mindanao. They teach an extremist fanatical version that from my understanding of Islam, which I have studied, is not consistent with the teachings of the Prophet. And they teach it’s okay to kidnap people and to kill people if they’re not of your faith. This is not what they teach at Al-Azhar. I’ve been to Al-Azhar, and yet these people from those other countries, whether Pakistan or the Arab world, in the past at least, have sought to teach these things to children in Mindanao, instead of teaching them reading, writing and arithmetic, which the government is now trying to teach them.

Q: Thank you.

Q. Ellen from Tokyo Shinbum. Regarding the peace process again, so you’re talking that MILF has many faces -- 4, 16, 9 faces -- and the formal peace has been postponed for years, months, there is an election in Malaysia, after Ramadan, after Christmas, there’s always a postponement; do you think it’s on the right track that it’s going, are you exasperated?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: If one is prone to exasperation and frustration, you shouldn’t be in diplomacy or democratic government, because there will be these constant trials and tests. It is frustrating, I suppose, but political processes are a never-ending story. We focus on pragmatic projects that get results. We know what peace will look like eventually. It may well have a formal document that consecrates it in a nice photo opportunity with people hugging and shaking hands. I hope they will have that some day. It will be a good thing. But it’s not a necessary thing, to let us at least expand the zones of peace. The people living in Datu Paglas, for example, in Mindanao, are enjoying the fruits of their hard work. Foreign investors are coming in, and Filipino investors are coming in. The largest, heaviest bunches of bananas in the world are being grown there with Italian, European and American investment, and Israeli drip technology. And those bananas are going for export to Iran, Japan and elsewhere. So we work with people like Datu Paglas. So when he says, “now we need to educate our children,” we say “okay.” There are Filipino groups like Ms. Lopez-Bautista of the Knowledge Channel that are trying to promote education through television. They are welcome to work there. We are glad through USAID to support that. We will work with communities that have a de facto peace, and hope that the politicians can catch up and have a formalized peace in due course.

Q: A somehow different matter but a question about the need to review the MDT and saying it’s the Philippines call, but in your fight, in the global war against terrorism, the situation in Mindanao is not just a Philippine situation. America also has its own interests in situation in Mindanao. The Janjalani Group has a relation with JI and al-Qaeda and so how is MDT responding to this kind of fight, of war?

RICCIARDONE: The Mutual Defense Treaty is what, 54 years old, something like that? It’s stood the test of time on its own. It’s been updated. And as I mentioned, it goes back not just to President Arroyo, but to President Estrada himself, who courageously signed the Visiting Forces Agreement. He saw a need to update it after the bases era was behind us. For a while, the MDT meant bases, and your Senate in its wisdom, decided in 1991 that bases were no longer needed. We agreed. We left.

We saw after a few years in the 90’s that we needed to have something still to continue our cooperation to keep both countries stronger, so we have the VFA. That’s been going on as well through an annual cycle of exercises that are sometimes no more than tabletop games in a room like this. I think we have one going on now, the Handa Exercise. Sometimes there are live-fire exercises like at Fort Magsaysay. We have another one of those at the end of this month. We have going right now in Davao a military-civilian, Police-Armed Forces, counter-drug exercise. So, we think the regime we have, with the MDT at its base, the Visiting Forces Agreement, the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, and other understandings that we have developed along the way, has enabled us to do good things together. Mostly, of course, we were conceiving on the military side, but it goes over into the law enforcement side as well. We think it makes the Philippines stronger and if the Philippines is stronger, we feel stronger. That’s just our view, and that’s the view I’m sure of your Government. But as I say, anyone who wants to examine that in a free country, in a democracy, ought to examine it. You should do it in the press, your columnists should write about it, and your politicians ought to ask those questions. It’s a good thing. Those are real questions that keep us fresh and dynamic.

Q: … (inaudible)… update the mother treaty?

RICCIARDONE: Treaties are contractual agreements between two free and equal parties. So of course treaties are always open to review within the terms of the treaty. You can’t impose them.

Q: Good morning sir. Just one quick update on the military assistance from the U.S., because you keep on saying the U.S. is assisting the Philippines in counter terrorism programs, can you update us on the actual figures of the formal military assistance, because I think it’s going down since last year, the level of assistance, the IMET and the other programs and there have been delays in the delivery of the promised helicopters from President Bush during Arroyo’s visit in Washington.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’ll be glad to update you. Let me make one observation before I turn it over to Col. Velasco, who is the man with all the facts and figures. The observation is this: whether it’s military assistance or economic assistance, the objective of both of those is to get out of the assistance business as soon as possible.

The objective is to help the receiving country -- in this case the Philippines -- become so strong that you won’t need foreign assistance any more, just as soon as possible. Most recipient countries share that objective. Recipient countries don’t want to need aid forever, ever and ever. It’s gone on for a long time in the Philippines. My own hope is that well within our lifetimes, I would hope within the administration of George W. Bush and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, we could push the assistance pipelines as low as possible, as the Philippines becomes stronger and stronger, militarily and economically. That’s the ideal. Will we reach it? I don’t know, but that ought to be the ideal. So, let’s keep that in mind as we talk about this. I would not want you to think that declining assistance levels would represent some kind of failure. On the contrary, they’d represent success. With that, Col. Velasco, would you like to respond to the specifics on numbers?

COL. VELASCO: I certainly would. I believe that the assistance to the Philippines has actually been going up. For example, prior to 2001, it was under 1.9 million. Then between 2002 and 2003, it’s about 97 million dollars for those two years, but that includes two supplementals for counter terrorism of 55 million dollars. Last year it was about 19.8 million dollars went into military financing. And in 2005, it will be 28.76 million. The IMET has actually been going up as well. IMET for 2005 is 3 million dollars compared to 2.7 million dollars last year, and 2.5 million the year before that.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Can you explain the acronyms FMF and IMET?

COL. VELASCO: Foreign Military Financing is grant money that the United States, by Act of Congress, provides to countries throughout the world, including the Philippines; and IMET is the International Military Education and Training Program- sending AFP officers and enlisted soldiers and sailors, marines to schools in the United States to help them not only educate themselves in all sorts of different skills, but to go to professional schooling as well.

GABBY: Manny was asking about the helicopters?

COL. VELASCO: The helicopters are in the process of being refurbished now. There are about six that are probably due to come back to the Philippines this summer. The process of refurbishment is a long one, especially in terms of refurbishing these helicopters, the UH-1’s, to not exactly new condition, but making the engines, the rotor blades, the frame itself usable for longer periods of time. We do the same thing to our helos. An added complication of course is that we use the same helicopters as the Philippines is using. Especially our Marine Corps uses the same exact UH-1 helicopter as does the Philippines – so there is that additional lag time. And the Philippines is not the only country using UH-1 helicopters too.

GABBY: So the timeline, Colonel, when these helicopters promised by President Bush will be met?

COL. VELASCO: It will be starting in the summer of this year. We’ll probably bring in six helos and soon thereafter the remaining over the next, I’d say -- year, also. When the President of the United States agreed to the helicopters it was when funding became available. And as you know, with our additional war that we’re going through in Iraq and Afghanistan, that there’s a lot of funding going to those forces too --

GABBY: We’re not talking about a hundred helicopters -- we’re talking about six -- we’re only talking about a dozen helicopters.

COL. VELASCO: Yes, you’re absolutely right but it takes time to refurbish those.

GABBY: Go ahead, Manny.

Q: Just a clarification. Are these six helicopters coming by summer – are these the ones being paid by the Philippine Government or are these the ones being given under the…?

COL. VELASCO: It’s both. There are ten that the President of the Philippines has paid for refurbishment and there are 20 that the President of the United States has agreed to. Again that’s a total of 30 plus you have an additional 20 from Singapore.

GABBY: Your statement, Mr. Ambassador, that you’d rather see aid diminish which means that the country that’s receiving that aid is already strong. But I make the observation that the United States has been giving military assistance to the Philippines since time immemorial. Since the bases were here -- that’s the point of reference. And we’re the weakest, militarily -- in Southeast Asia. So what does that say, Mr. Ambassador?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: It says that’s there’s a crying need for reform – for systemic reform so you won’t be dependent forever. And we responded to that need starting about 1999 or 2000- we began this Joint Defense Assessment. We realized, Gabby, that through the bases era, we were giving massive amounts of military and economic assistance, but it didn’t succeed in making the Armed Forces of the Philippines independent. They became dependent on it. When the bases closed, we squeezed the valve and started to turn off the spigot, and we were almost ready to close down our JUSMAG at the embassy – and for that matter, our USAID – by the end of the 1990’s and early 2000. When President Bush took office and President Arroyo on the same day in January four years ago, we took another look at each other and our importance to each other, and we started ramping up the assistance on both sides. But we also wanted to put it on a new footing. We wanted to make our defense assistance, like our economic assistance, lead to greater independence in the Philippines. Greater strength, internal strength.

So we took the Joint Defense Assessment that had just begun, and we energized it. We ramped it up, and when the two Presidents met during their two state visits in 2003, they said “okay, we’re going to stop assessing, and we’re going to act on the assessment. We all know what we need to do. We need to overhaul the armed forces.” And it doesn’t just mean helicopters -- I know everybody is interested in helicopters, they photograph well. But other things that don’t photograph well are even more vital and those are all the management things that the Philippines Defense Reform program is carrying out.

Again, they are: logistics. They are financial management. They are information management. They are personnel management. All of the things that will prevent corruption, or make corruption harder. You need systems to move money, other than paper bags full of cash. When you have a paper bag full of cash, some of that cash is definitely going to fall out of that paper bag into somebody’s desk drawer. And you won’t be able to track it. But when it moves by computer, there’s a paper trail. And it will be very hard for generals or colonels or anyone else to steal that money. The same with boots or guns -- the logistics supply train has barcodes on everything. It becomes very hard to steal.

When you train people in marksmanship or night fighting and then don’t deploy them to a place where they need it -- that’s a horrific waste of resources. By having a personnel management system, you won’t have the kind of fiasco we had in July of 2003 where we were reading in The Inquirer and The Star of units taking ferry boats from Mindanao to invade Manila – and the Armed Forces of the Philippines couldn’t account for their people, because they had no way of telling where their people were on any given day. All those sorts of invisible things you can’t take pictures of, but are vital to having the Armed Forces of the Philippines work and work well. And now, we have the leadership of Secretary Cruz, General Abu…building on what General Abaya did before and at the firm direction of two Presidents, to put their house in order. And that takes money. And it takes effort, and it takes time, and it takes leadership. And all those things – the money, the time, the leadership, the effort, are coming together -- have come together -- and we’ve already got the first U.S. subject matter experts -- are they in-country yet?

COL. VELASCO: Two are here.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Two are already here. Others are arriving this month and next, to help the Armed Forces of the Philippines become as good a corporate enterprise as any of the best Filipino or American companies.

GABBY: Yes, Patrick.

Q: Patrick Lucero from Business Traveler. Why shouldn’t the average American person be concerned about the anti-terrorism effort in the Philippines?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Why should they or should they not?

Q: Why should they?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Why should they? Well, because we’re so closely joined, as two countries that have not only a long shared history, but also shared people. Look around this table. You cannot say which of us is an American and which is a Filipino just by judging from the way we look. The same is true in my Embassy. Two or three million people living in the United States are Filipino in origin. They came from the Philippines in their lifetimes, or their parents did. So they look like a lot of people here or outside the hotel. And one hundred and thirty thousand Americans live in this country. Some are dual nationals. We live with each other, we marry each other – we do business with each other. There’s something like a million people flying back and forth between our two countries.

It’s as if we were contiguous countries – because of our history, the Pacific Ocean almost doesn’t matter. You’re as close to the United States, in extremely important and direct human terms, as Canada or Mexico. We’re just so tightly linked. If we didn’t have all that travel, if the Philippines wasn’t our 19th largest trading partner, if we weren’t the Philippines’ largest trading partner, I guess we could afford not to care about each other. But even if we didn’t like each other -- and we do -- but even if we didn’t, we’re compelled to care about each other.

Q: But will you keep on liking us? We are that helpless or even perhaps insatiable, in terms of U.S. assistance?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: For all the differences we’ve had -- the bases, and this and that over the years, there’s a warmth and an affection in this relationship that I’ve not seen in any other country where I’ve served in a quarter of a century diplomatic career. That fondness is just always there. Even when we get mad at each other temporarily – the cultural ties are just too strong. There’s just an affection. We understand each other. It’s hopeless!

GABBY: Okay, Ollie.

Q: Can you quantify some figures to how we measure success against terrorism?
You mentioned a while back about the amount of money in Mindanao in the Rewards for Justice program. But that’s for last year. Let’s say just since 2002, when the Balikatan (inaudible)?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Sure. I can suggest several measures and maybe there are some scholarly people here. You’ve got some people from the security industry and you can choose different ones. One is of course the number of arrests. And I haven’t looked really carefully at this, but we were looking at it last month within the Embassy. We counted about 25 identified, known, no-doubt-about-it terrorist leaders who were one way or another put out of action in the Philippines last year -- meaning through arrests or killed. That’s not bad. You can look at the statistics of the clashes between the Armed Forces of the Philippines or police for that matter, and various groups in Mindanao, and those numbers have gone way, way down since 2003, the second year in a row the recorded incidents have gone down. And by the way, the International Monitoring Team is there to help validate those results, and is doing a fine job. And the United States is not a part of that. We’re glad to see other countries taking the lead there. That’s good. You can look on the more positive side at the number of schools where we are able to work. In Mindanao alone we have 106 – Mike, is it 106 CLIC schools, or is it 40 in Mindanao?

USAID DIRECTOR MIKE YATES: No it’s just over a hundred.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: In the past year, there’s enough peace and order in Mindanao that we’ve been able to not just computerize 106 schools, but also link them to the Internet. And not just link them to the Internet, but also to train the teachers and the students to exploit the Internet as part of their curriculum. In a country where five or six or eight or ten kids have to share a textbook, they now have access to all of the rich materials and information that is out there on the Internet in 106 schools in Mindanao. We couldn’t have done that in 2000, when the Abu Sayyaf was burning schoolrooms down there.

Other measures: micro-finance is taking off. I visited Cotabato City with Andrew Natsios, and met the women -- it’s mostly women who lead in so many things in this country, but particularly in micro-finance -- who are opening little businesses, and have phenomenal re-payment rates. Mike, you can quote more statistics on how many micro-financing credit unions are opening up all over the country, but particularly in the conflict-affected areas of Muslim Mindanao. I went to Jolo. The United States Ambassador was able to go to Jolo. I was warmly welcomed there. I am told I was the first senior American official since Gen. Pershing to go there, and I loved it. It was great. I saw people doing things. I saw libraries, I saw literacy groups, I saw clinics. I saw livelihood programs going on. Mindanao is on the move. You can take these economic indicators and look at them and they tell you, I think, in even better terms than the number of arrested and killed terrorists, about the progress that is going on in Mindanao.

GABBY: Ollie, are you happy with those figures?

Q: How about the military facts and figures. How many have you trained?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: How many have we trained?

COL. VELASCO: I would say that we’ve trained probably in the thousands – at least six light infantry battalions, three of the light reaction companies. Perhaps 250 combat lifesavers in the Marines and Army.

GABBY: Lifesavers -- who are those?

COL. VELASCO: They are not medical personnel, but they are common soldiers who are trained in providing first response, first aid to their buddies in the field. So before they are taken out of a combat situation, they are already stabilized. Just to give you two examples – the training we provided to the Philippine Air Force in night vision, goggle flight operations – resulted in saving four lives out of Basilan this past year in a night time medivac operation. That’s the first time they’ve ever had a night medivac operation and just this past month, the 27th infantry battalion conducted an operation in southern Mindanao that resulted in the capture and killing of Abu Sayyaf personnel based on the training they received in Zamboanga from their light infantry battalion trainer.

GABBY: Manny-

Q: Going back to the so many faces of the MILF. As the peace process progresses, can you say that the MILF is getting even more divided among themselves? There’s a faction against the peace talks and there’s a faction who wants peace with government? What’s the U.S. assessment on this?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I honestly don’t know. I described what we don’t know. Our confusion as to who owns the MILF brand. That’s all I can say. It’s up to those four faces, or nine faces or 16 faces – or whoever is going to say “I’m the real MILF -- and I own it, and here’s what we believe, and here’s what we stand for.” The American Ambassador can’t possibly give you an authoritative read on who are the MILF and how many factions and what they want.

Q: From the Embassy’s information, how divided is the MILF as the peace talks progress?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I told you before, I don’t know. But for me – I’ve described the difficulty in not knowing. The difficulty is, it’s hard to negotiate in a business deal if you don’t know who is the company, the party you’re negotiating with. What’s their capitalization, who are the share holders, what’s their track record, do they honor their contractual commitments, what’s their credit rating, where is their property, what skills do their people have, how many people work for them. You need to know all those things when you’re making a business deal, right?

Well it’s the same with a political deal. If it’s between two countries, if it’s the United States and the Philippines negotiating an agreement for military assistance, we know who the Philippines Government are. They know who we are. We know we’ll keep each other’s commitments. It’s fine. When you’re dealing with a non-government entity, it just becomes difficult to make an agreement that will stick if you don’t know who they are. So I’m sure the MILF will describe for themselves who they are, and what they stand for, and we will all want to believe that. It will it be up to them to demonstrate who they are, what they want, what they are committed to. So that’s why we wish success to these talks.

Q: Is this a sign that peace with MILF is really that difficult?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: As I suggested, the peace train is leaving the station in Mindanao. You can hop aboard or you can watch it leave. Datu Paglas, people in Cotabato, people in Jolo, people in Basilan have hopped aboard the train and they’re building. I’ve been to Basilan four times. The first time I went was early in my tenure.

People showed me burned-out huts that had been classrooms where the Abu Sayyaf had murdered people. This past October when I went back with the USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, I went and inaugurated a national high school that had ten computers hooked up to the Internet, and kids cheering, parents cheering, Muslim and Christians altogether. I saw Basilan turn around. My driver in Basilan proudly pointed out to me the Jollibee that had just opened in Basilan, and he had invested in it. The peace train is leaving the station. Get on it!

GABBY: In your concern for the economic growth of the country, Mr. Ambassador, you underline the importance good governance in the fight against corruption. Are you satisfied that the efforts are there and what more do you think can be done?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I believe the efforts are there. There are courageous Filipinos in government and outside that are pushing hard. There is political will. People raise the question – is there political will? I believe there’s strong political will. I believe President Arroyo is determined to do something about this. But the forces of reaction in this country, the portion who are anti-revolutionary, are also strong, and are also determined. They are people who do not want transparency. But I believe that the leadership that is there now is peeling away at that. Heretofore there’s been a problem also of lack of resources.

We have already been working through the United States Agency for International Development and through the Embassy as a whole to promote domestic advocacy for good government, and to train people in investigation. I was speaking with Mercy Gutierrez the other day, and also the head of the Public Defenders Office, Ms. Acosta. She’s terrific. She has all these lawyers who are trained to investigate and provide legal counsel. The threshold for receiving free public advice is income of 12 thousand pesos. Her lawyers are paid 14 thousand pesos. They’re getting two thousand a month more – if they were getting two thousand a month less, they could give each other free legal advice! Those are resources you have. We are able to step in and provide resources. We don’t pay salaries, but we provide training. Sonny Marcelo was able to hire more investigators and prosecutors, but they’re no good if they’re not trained. And we help in the training. We bring in the Tony Kwoks and people like this. So it’s happening. It’s coming together. So will it succeed? I don’t know. Change is inevitable, progress is not.

GABBY: You say there’s a resistance to the effort at transparency. Is that coming from outside or within also somewhere in the government?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Even putative progressives – take the NPA and the communists for example. You don’t get a more reactionary gang than that. It’s a three- or four-decade old organization that hasn’t had a new idea, or any attempt to change direction, in decades. People like that aren’t changing.

GABBY: But there are some who say that there are also elements within the government that oppose the transparency efforts of the government.

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: No doubt. There are still people who are in government who are resisting change – who are trying to hide what they are doing. What I’m saying is: I’ve been here three years now. I have a baseline on which to judge. I heard a lot of speeches in 2002. I knew a number of good people, now I see those people feeling empowered, going for it, doing heroic work. I’ve mentioned their names in my prepared remarks – Sonny Marcelo, Haydee Yorac, Connie de Guzman – in the Congress you have Roy Golez relentlessly holding these hearings. In the courts, you’ve got the Chief Justice, who has made amazing inroads. He sanctioned a lot of bad judges in these past three years. He has disciplined them. There are consequences now for stealing. Not enough, I don’t think we have reached the tipping point yet…. But it is possible to reach the tipping point. You know, if things keep going the way they are, if they all pitch in, why not expect it to happen in the next five years, in the tenure of this Government?

Q: (Gabby Tabunar) Well as you know from the time you were here, there hasn’t been a single top man or official that has been prosecuted in court or fired from the court and that’s what people are dismayed about because they say all they want is just one example of somebody in higher ups being prosecuted and fired. Do you agree?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Sure. Well, I hope…

Q: Do you agree?

RICCIARDONE: Yeah. I’m hearing that. I hope Filipinos won’t stop at demanding just one, because you’ll probably get one, and fairly soon. There’s the case of General Garcia that’s being prosecuted aggressively. That’s one. I doubt if Filipinos will be happy when that case alone is resolved. Filipinos probably would demand more, and they should. Not just in the Armed Forces, but beyond.

GABBY: Okay. We’ll take the last two questions. Ollie…

Q: Sir, you said that you’re seeing political will in the fight against corruption. That’s on the assumption that there’s no question about the moral high ground of the top leadership of the country (inaudible) is corruption-free. But there have been suggestions and many accusations, of course, coming from the opposition that the President’s husband is himself corrupt. Is (inaudible) ? Is the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. Government concerned about all this talk that keeps coming up from time to time about corruption involving the first gentleman?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: We’re not concerned about the talk. In a democracy there should be talk, but there also should be more than talk. There should be aggressive investigation. Talk is just loose – you know, angry words in a hospital room, or in a bar or something and it doesn’t go anywhere. Then, a democracy isn’t strong. Democracies need strong, effective, articulate oppositions -- whether in my country or yours or any others. You need someone who’s going to test the established order and hold it to account.

So that’s why I said, we in the U.S. Embassy have rich, productive and illuminating conversations with your opposition politicians. We respect them. They do good things for this country. We want to see the opposition play its rightful role in any country. So as to these rumors about the First Gentleman – it’s hard being a leader of a country. It’s hard being a family member and being a public figure. You’re subject to all kinds of attacks. Probably most are unfair. Many are scurrilous. But if there’s substance to some of them, then that’s one of the things you’ve got to deal with, being in public life. You’d better be able to defend yourself, and have good lawyers, and have the facts on your side. You in the media are a part of it. The political opposition has a job. I hope you all are doing serious, investigative work. There’s this wonderful NGO, the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism. (Is there someone here today? I don’t see Maritess here or Sheila…) That’s a good thing. So go for it. In answer to your direct question – no, I’m not worried about the talk. My only worry is, the talk doesn’t lead to action.

GABBY: Okay, last question.

Q: It’s about the recent, you mentioned the case of General Garcia. Can you tell us about how or what the U.S. Embassy’s role was in this unraveling of the allegations against this General?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I’m always careful, as a public official, not to talk about the details of cases that are pending before the courts or magistrates of any sort. I cited that case in general terms as an example of a high profile one, when Gabby mentioned Filipinos are demanding a big fish be investigated and prosecuted and convicted. In this case, there’s at least the investigation and a prosecution going on. Whether it will lead to conviction, let’s see. The role of the United States Embassy in law enforcement is very much like the role in counter-terrorism or security assistance. Our law enforcers cooperate with the Filipino counterparts very intimately. We have a justice attaché, we have the FBI, - a justice attaché who works with the Secretary of Justice and others in his bureaucracy to strengthen prosecutions in this country, particularly of cases that involve American citizens here, or Filipino citizens in the U.S.; and extraditions back and forth. And we’ve greatly advanced that cooperation in the past several years.

We have an FBI attaché who works directly with the NBI here -- again, on strengthening our exchange of criminal information, and prosecutions. We have a Transportation Security Agency specialist who works with your airport and seaport authorities to try to strengthen our border controls back and forth. We provide lots of intelligence information and techniques -- fingerprinting techniques and computerization of fingerprinting and so forth -- so we can share information all the better.

We’re doing those things, and we’re also helping in the anti-corruption area, like our anti-money laundering cooperation. You’ve got an Anti-Money Laundering Council. That’s hooked up with several United States agencies through our Embassy – to the U.S. Treasury, to our International Customs Enforcement Bureau. So that when we get information about people laundering money into the United States, we pass it back. And I would say in general terms, that’s helping your anti-corruption people a lot. And we’re stepping that up. President Arroyo -- when I spoke about this with her a few months ago, I pointed out that not only do we have a law that requires people entering the United States to declare if they’re carrying over ten thousand dollars in cash – and as you know from reporting, that was germane to the Garcia case – but also, you have a law requiring people departing with more than ten thousand dollars to declare it. But guess what? At your airport, there were no signs, there were no forms to fill up and nobody was enforcing it. In the past few months, President Arroyo has directed that that now be enforced. And you will see signs going up and forms coming out, so that your people can find out if passengers are departing with more than ten thousand dollars; and on our end, if they’re coming in with more than ten thousand dollars. So we can marry that information, and ask a few more questions about where that money came from.

GABBY: Thank you. Last question.

Q: Sir you mentioned General Garcia. Are you happy with the way he and his case are being handled? He is in a special cell in ISAF so we don’t know what privileges he’s actually enjoying there. The charges filed against him at the anti-graft court are perjury charges, although there’s a separate court martial for him -- is this the way a high-level graft case should be handled?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: For me, as a foreigner -- the question is, is this particular case or is any particular case being carried out in accordance with your law? And by all evidence, this is. Also, as a case that did involve an allegation involving transactions into the United States, we certainly do have an interest in seeing it followed up. And from what we can tell, it is being followed up professionally, and aggressively, and in accordance with your law.

GABBY: It’s too slow, isn’t it?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Well actually, we are having a conversation with the judiciary, not on this particular case, but in general. There are different ways of going about justice in different countries. In our country, we favor in most cases, continuous trials. So you don’t just have a hearing one day and then no hearing again for six months, and another one, and another one. That will make a case go on. If it takes 15 sessions and you only have two sessions a year, you know it will go on several years and justice doesn’t get done. “Justice delayed is justice denied.” We’re speaking with the Chief Justice, in his capacity as the head administrator of the court system here, to see if at least in high profile anti-corruption cases, it might be possible to have continuous trials. This is what your Ombudsman is advocating. And we’re sharing our experience through the American Bar Association expert that we supply, again through USAID, in how continuous trials work for us – the advantages and the disadvantages – and we’re sharing lessons learned.

GABBY: Dana?

Q: Are you providing any assistance regarding the Garcia case in terms of documents and evidence? Are you providing the Philippine prosecutors assistance in terms of documents and evidence other than what you have given…?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: You mean in the specific Garcia case? I’d rather not address the specific Garcia case for the same reason. We’re really cautious on that in our tradition, in our government. Judges in our country hate it when public officials get into the merits of a case or the mechanics of a case. It doesn’t help the prosecution. And I don’t want to do anything to interfere one way or another in your processing of justice in this case. But in general terms I will say – wherever we have evidence to share, we willingly share it. There’s no impediment to sharing it. There are technicalities in gathering it and bringing it and conveying it and protecting it – there’s something called “the chain of custody” of evidence that we need to make sure we protect. But we are not at all inhibited in supporting your prosecutors and your courts when they ask for our cooperation.

GABBY: Just one more question.

Q: (First part inaudible). Are you looking at the possibility that some of the money he allegedly pocketed came from the U.S. military assistance? Is that a concern?

AMBASSDOR RICCIARDONE: I can be clear on that. I don’t believe that our military assistance is very vulnerable to theft by corrupt people in the AFP or the DND. We have a lot of safeguards built into that. I don’t know if we still have on our website the details of those safeguards.

Do you know, Matt, whether we still have that posted?

COL .VELASCO: I think it is.

AMBASSDOR RICCIARDONE: This came up about a year or half a year ago, and we posted the details of the protections we put it in. We call them “management controls” on the funding that we provide. And it’s all pretty much receipted to death. And a good part of our JUSMAG staff is there precisely to follow up and make sure that, when we provide not just funds, but also equipment, it gets to the soldier, or to the benefit of the soldier.

Q: So you don’t worry about that?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: No, I’m really not worried about that.

GABBY: All right, thank you very much.

Q: One more question, Gabby. Just a final follow up –

GABBY: Some short, sweet, snappy question.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, you said that U.S. funds are protected from potential graft by local officials. One of the issues being raised by Senator Santiago was that the Philippines spent 96 million for the Balikatan but the U.S. reimbursed only about 26 million. So was it possible that these Filipino officials are taking advantage of the Balikatan as an issue to overprice certain projects?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I really can’t comment on what the Senator was getting at there. I simply don’t know the details, but I’d be glad if either the Senator or somebody in the media wants to pose us a specific question regarding any of the funding for any of our exercises. We’d be only too happy to respond. But I don’t know what the question is here. What 96 million – 26 million? Pose it to us in a specific form that an accountant can understand, and Col. Velasco will be glad to give it to you. Thank you.

GABBY: Thank you very much, it’s always a pleasure and stimulating to talk with you, Mr. Ambassador. I ask again will you still be in town serving as Ambassador in the next six months?

AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: I don’t know. I serve at the pleasure of the President. I’m beginning my fourth year. I’m glad to be beginning my fourth year. I’m not eager to leave. I’ve no word of an onward assignment, and the longer I can stay here, the happier I’ll be.

GABBY: Good. The happier we will be! Thank you very much.

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