MANILA, Philippines — U.S. military advisers training Filipino soldiers against the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group will remain at heavily guarded field camps with little chance of coming under fire, the government said Thursday.
Chief of Staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said the U.S. troops will accompany Filipino officers and provide advice at tactical headquarters during the six-month mission.
"They will not be permitted to patrol," Villanueva told a Senate inquiry probing allegations that the joint exercise violates a constitutional clause limiting the presence and activities of foreign troops. "My guidance is that they will not join combat operations."
Vice President Teofisto Guingona also outlined the terms of reference for the exercise drafted by the Philippine government but not yet approved by the Americans.
Although the mission formally began last week with a ceremony, training on the southern island of Basilan an Abu Sayyaf base will not begin until the Americans approve the terms, he said.
The draft gives the Philippine government command of the exercise, bars U.S. troops from combat operations, fixes the U.S. presence at a maximum of 660 soldiers, prohibits permanent U.S. military facilities, and limits training to Basilan island and nearby Zamboanga city, where most U.S. soldiers are staying.
It also states that the mission can last no longer than six months and allows the Americans to fire back in self-defense.
Guingona said self-defense must be "proportionate to the threat and the right to self-defense ends when there is no more threat."
The United States has reportedly objected to any terms that could give a foreign government authority over U.S. troops and the strict limit on the number of U.S. soldiers.
On Wednesday, Brig Gen. Donald Wurster, senior officer for the more than 260 U.S. troops already in the Philippines for the exercise, said his men are ready to take casualties to help vanquish the Abu Sayyaf, which holds Wichita, Kan., couple Martin and Gracia Burnham hostage.
About 160 U.S. Special Forces members are expected to travel to the southern island of Basilan where fewer than 100 Abu Sayyaf members hold the Burnhams. Abu Sayyaf is believed to have links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network
Critics of the U.S. mission have said conflict in the southern Philippines, a hotbed of Muslim separatism, could escalate if American troops were attacked.
Much of the concern has been stirred by suggestions that the Philippines would be the second front in the U.S.-led war against terrorism after Afghanistan. Both governments have denied that.
Despite the controversy, protests in recent weeks have been generally small. On Thursday, about a dozen fishermen waded in chest-deep water near the seaside U.S. Embassy, waving placards saying "No to U.S. troops." And about 100 university students burned a hand-painted copy of the U.S. flag in a brief protest outside Polytechnic University.
The Burnhams said in a letter that paying a ransom may be their only route to freedom and that they feared dying in a military rescue, a respected television station reported Wednesday.
ABS-CBN showed the letter but did not say how it obtained a copy. The letter was to Gracia's sister, but the Burnhams also addressed their children, Jeff, Mindy and Zach, ABS-CBN said.
"Jeff," Martin wrote, "I wanted to watch the World Series then the Super Bowl with you, but I even don't know who played. ... I'm praying that God will give us some more good times together."
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