Word: arroyos
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...underlying purposes of this operation may go beyond the fate of Abu Sayyaf. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has shrewdly used the terrorism threat to dip into Washington's honey jar, coming away with $100 million in military aid and substantial additions to her depleted arsenal. Her country has largely been cut off from military assistance since Manila kicked the U.S. out of its two major South Asian bases in 1991. The Bush Administration was eager to regain a military foothold there. Last November, when Arroyo visited Washington, the President offered to send U.S. combat troops to join...
Since becoming President in 2001, Arroyo has waged an aggressive but often inept campaign against Abu Sayyaf. Some also charge that pervasive corruption makes the army soft on the rebels. Even so, army firefights have pruned the group--which once held the allegiance of perhaps 2,000 Muslims, including 200 hard-core fighters--to about 80 devotees, who have had to split into two constantly traveling units...
Plenty of opposition politicians and ordinary Filipinos think Arroyo is being too welcoming to U.S. troops. Senior Filipino lawmakers question the legality of an "exercise" that brushes close to the constitutional ban on foreign combat and are worried that it is the first step toward re-establishing U.S. bases. Some analysts charge Arroyo with exaggerating Abu Sayyaf's strength in order to grab more American aid. And Muslim leaders in the southern zone fear the U.S. presence will reactivate mainstream separatist outfits...
...subjects she now deals with every day. She knows that beneath the daily cacophony assailing her?the sneers, the ingratiation, the pleading and cajoling, and the doubts, always the doubts?are the same questions that have haunted her presidency since she assumed office a year ago: Can Gloria Macapagal Arroyo run this nation? Does she deserve to? Will she have the chance to prove...
...each stop, she is greeted by entire village populations cheering and waving with a passion normally reserved for holy days. Her mother grew up not far away. Arroyo knows the local dialect?one of six languages she speaks?and remembers the steps of the traditional dances she's invited to join. She's happiest on these trips, she says repeatedly. And she does seem looser than she is around the palace or in press conferences and at official functions. Her frequent reminders that she's the first President to visit these towns?shrugging off two previous helicopter crashes and "risking...