The reported collusion between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiah is nothing but an "old story," President Arroyo's spokesman and press secretary, Ignacio Bunye, said yesterday. Allegedly, the supposedly secret government report shows the continuing collusion between the MILF and Jemaah Islamiah. The report states that, early this year, at least 19 new members of the al-Qaeda-linked terror group received training inside MILF camps.

Australian and US officials had expressed concern about the report. However, Bunye maintained that the government is on top of any situation involving terrorist threats, adding that the President is confident that the MILF will fulfill its commitment to help the government weed out terrorists in Mindanao.

The MILF early this month invited members of the Malaysian-led monitoring mission to visit and investigate the alleged presence of the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiah in their camps. While the government and the MILF await the resumption of peace negotiations, the Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), composed of representatives from the government and the MILF, is organizing a trip next month to the reported terrorist haven in the Mount Cararao Complex in Lanao del Sur.

A joint statement of the committee chairmen, Brig. Gen. Alexander Yano and Benjie Midtimbang, confirmed the schedule of the visit, which will be after the observance of the annual Muslim feast of Ramadan starting on October 16. Details of the planned visit were thrashed out at the CCCH's meeting in Gen. Santos City on Tuesday and Wednesday. The committee also discussed and finalized an inspection of the MILF forces in Tumanggong village in Tungawan, Zamboanga del Norte, scheduled next week.

Mount Cararao has been identified as the hiding place of members of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah. Earlier reports put the number of Jemaah Islamiah members in the area from 50 to 60, but recent reports said the number has decreased to around 40.

During the two-day meeting, the two committees briefed each other on the progress of the peace process, including the draft terms of reference for the visiting International Monitoring Team.

Note: For as long as tangible advantages can be obtained from keeping the CCCH in being, the lip service paid to the MILF by President Arroyo may continue to be necessary. However, it would be wise to act on the assumption that the report on MILF cooperation with Jemaah Islamiah is correct. The huge island of Mindanao has had a Muslim majority for a very long time and the fighting there is endemic. However, the situation now also threatens to get out of control in many other parts of the of the Philippine Republic where, often with help of Saudi Arabian money, some 200 mosques and an even higher number of Muslim madrassahs (usually teaching an aggressive, proselytizing kind of Islam) were erected during the past five years. Islam has spread most rapidly on the largest island, Luzon, which includes the capital, Manila. Philippine governments have done nothing to stem the tide. Unless they act, the biggest Roman Catholic state in Asia may yet become Muslim.