DAVAO CITY—The Indonesian vice consul said he would favor stationing Indonesian antiterrorist troops here to help clamp down on the suspected traffic of Indonesian terror suspects believed to be hiding or getting their training in Southern Philippines.

F. Bernard Loesi, Indonesia’s vice consul here, said he would agree to bringing in antiterrorist police or military troops here “to work closely with the Philippine military or police.”

“There had been some kind of understanding about that some years ago, but there had been no request filed yet with our government,” Loesi told a news forum at the Marco Polo Hotel here Wednesday.

He said there were Indonesia navy troops guarding the sea borders with other countries like the Philippines. There are approximately 7,000 Indonesians spread across most of the southern part of Mindanao, but Loesi said that only about 3,500 of them were documented.

“We are continuing our efforts to document them.”

The absence of Indonesian troops running after Indonesians engaged in terror activities, however, did not mean a nonchalant posture on the part of the consulate here.

“We have quite a good and working coordination with security agencies not only of the Philippines, but with other countries like Malaysia and Singapore.”

Previous assessments have identified these areas, including Indonesia, as the refuge and haven of al-Qaeda-linked terror group Jema’ah al-Islamiyah (JI). Loesi said that “these terrorists, however, are capable of expanding their areas of operation outside these countries, and I believe that their operations have become much larger and wider.”

Loesi said his consular office in Davao has been closely coordinating with the Philippine government in matters of terrorism linking some of their nationals.

“Thus, it is wrong to say that there are no Indonesian terrorists in Mindanao when the reports have been very definite about them, like Omar Patek, Dulmatin and, recently, of [Mohamad] Baehaqi.”

Loesi confirmed that Baehaqi was an Indonesian and said the Indonesian embassy in Manila would “reconfirm the nationality of Baehaqi when our ambassador or other personnel would meet the suspected terrorist.”

The Philippine military said Baehaqi carried the aliases of Latif, Salman and Tatoh. He was nabbed in a house in barangay Piso, Banaybanay, Davao Oriental, on Sunday by a team of policemen and soldiers.

His arrest was covered by a warrant of arrest for being a fugitive of the law, where he was accused of multiple-murder charges in his alleged involvement in the October 2006 bombing in Makilala, North Cotabato, where 12 people were killed.

Judge Francis Palmones Jr. of the Regional Trial Court in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, issued the warrant.

Baehaqi was whisked immediately to Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

The arresting team also nabbed Baehaqi’s alleged local contacts, identified as Cabiza Generoso and Mohar Abais Generoso.

The arresting team claimed it also found a caliber .22 Winchester rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, a caliber .45 pistol, cash amounting to P4,500, two cellular phones and a military-style camouflage uniform from the three.

The trio also purportedly yielded 24 pieces of blasting caps, explosive substances, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, detonating cord, soldering iron, remote detonating devices, earphones and a bomb-making diagram with notes in Bahasa, dry-cell batteries, cellular phone-subscriber identification module packs, a Toshiba laptop computer and two flash drives.

The military said Baehaqi, 26, has been in the country since 2003 and was believed to be the JI liaison in Central and Southern Mindanao. He was also believed to be with the group of fellow Indonesian terrorists Dulmatin and Omar Patek.

Palace: Conditions not conducive for ‘Edsa’; police on normal alert

Malacañang said on Wednesday that present conditions in the country are not conducive to a successful people power bid, and again urged President Arroyo’s detractors to just wait for the next national polls in 2010 to change the leadership.

A senior Roman Catholic bishop is hoping that the February 29 interfaith prayer rally would lead to President Arroyo’s resignation as various groups come together in response to the clergy’s call for “communal action” and a “brand-new people power.”

DAVAO CITY—US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim had a historic meeting on Tuesday in the MILF camp in Maguindanao, but both sides declined to divulge the subject of their meeting.

THE Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando (MMO) River System—tagged recently as one of the world’s dirtiest—finally faces rehabilitation with the help of the environment department, local government units (LGUs), other concerned government agencies and private institutions.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Jema’ah Islamiyah (JI) bomber Dulmatin, whose complete name is Amar Usmanan, spearheaded the abduction of a priest-director and a teacher of a Catholic-run secondary school last month in the province of Tawi-Tawi.

DAVAO CITY—The Indonesian vice consul said he would favor stationing Indonesian antiterrorist troops here to help clamp down on the suspected traffic of Indonesian terror suspects believed to be hiding or getting their training in Southern Philippines.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The two-day Second Tripartite Meeting among the government, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Organization of Islamic Conference  ended with an agreement to formulate “possible proposals” to amend the law on Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to ensure the full implementation of the 1996 peace pact with MNLF.

THE “ecosystem of corruption” and “oligarchy” that prevails in the government is well-embedded in the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), agrarian-reform groups said.