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OO RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHML #1108/01 1290857
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O 080857Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY MANILA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0638
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS IMMEDIATE
RHHMUNA/CDRUSPACOM HONOLULU HI IMMEDIATE
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MANILA 001108 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: PREL PTER RP
SUBJECT:  PREPARING FOR MERCY DEPLOYMENT IN LANAO DEL NORTE 
 
REF: A. MANILA 885 (Laying Groundwork for MERCY Deployment) 
 ¶B. MANILA 893 (Balikatan Exercises) 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  During an April 28 visit to Iligan City and Lanao 
del Norte province in the southern Philippines, Embassy officers and 
a U.S. Navy planner consulted with senior Philippine civil and 
military officials regarding the upcoming visit of USNS MERCY. 
Polcouns highlighted the importance of the MERCY visit to the 
U.S.-Philippine partnership and the hospital ship's goal of helping 
bring peace and prosperity to this conflict-affected area.  Local 
officials were grateful for the planned MERCY visit and the 
opportunity to share their thoughts on the proposed medical 
missions.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) As part of a continuing outreach effort by Mission personnel 
to lay the groundwork for a smooth USNS MERCY visit in Mindanao 
(reftel A), Polcouns, Defense Attache and MERCY planner met April 28 
with Lanao del Norte Governor Muhammad Khalid Dimaporo, Iligan City 
Mayor Lawrence Cruz and Police Director Virgilio Ranes, and local 
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) commander Col. Antonio Supnet. 
 
 
¶3.  (U) Polcouns thanked the officials and AFP for their efforts to 
make the MERCY visit a success.  He emphasized that the MERCY's May 
29-June 14 visit reflected the friendship between our countries and 
the importance of partnerships with Philippine national and local 
government officials, NGOs, and community organizations.  He 
stressed the humanitarian nature of the mission and its goal of 
providing medical care to thousands of Filipinos.  He also expressed 
the hope that the MERCY visit would play a positive role in bringing 
peace and prosperity to Mindanao. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Lanao del Norte Governor Dimaporo voiced strong enthusiasm 
for the MERCY visit and asked that a medical team be sent to his 
provincial capital, Tubod, not just Iligan city proper.  The 
governor expressed confidence that Lanao del Norte residents were 
likewise enthusiastic about the visit and said he did not expect the 
kind of anti-U.S. demonstrations that marked the arrival of 
humanitarian teams in neighboring Lanao del Sur during the recent 
Balikatan exercises (reftel B).  The governor pointed out that 
Iligan City is an independent, chartered city that functions very 
separately from the rest of Lanao del Norte, and he wanted to ensure 
that a wide spectrum of constituents benefited directly from the 
MERCY's visit.  The governor promised to provide crowd control and 
security for a medical team and use of the Mindanao Civic Center if 
medical mission took place there. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Dimaporo, the country's youngest governor, described the 
close ties between President Gloria Arroyo and his prominent 
political family (his father is a sitting Congressman, and both his 
father and mother served as governor).  He outlined the political 
dispute between his province and Iligan City over congressional 
boundaries and representation, saying that his mother lost a bitter 
campaign for a congressional seat because of Iligan City's 
encroachment.  Dimaporo lamented his province's relative poverty, 
saying he planned to focus on increasing tourism and on improving 
education so more residents could go overseas to earn foreign 
currency. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Iligan City Mayor Cruz also welcomed the MERCY's visit, 
both for the immediate benefits to his city's neediest residents and 
for the symbolic message that the city is safe for investment and 
development.  Mayor Cruz stressed that Iligan is a safe city - 
noting that 16 of 22 provincial mayors in the area have their homes 
in Iligan and commute to work in their constituencies every day - 
but the city's hospital is overcrowded, and the area's image as a 
conflict zone makes it more difficult to attract outside investment. 
 The Mayor expressed the strong belief that the MERCY's visit would 
help ameliorate the hospital's problems in the short term and 
improve the city's image with outside investors in the long run. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Iligan City Police Director Ranes, and Colonel Antonio 
Supnet, commander of the Philippine Army's local Task Force Tabak, 
concurred that there was widespread support for the MERCY's mission. 
 They reinforced the view that the general peace and stability 
situation in Lanao del Norte was good, and that the medical teams 
from MERCY would be welcomed.  Like Mayor Cruz, both said that they 
have been talking to local village officials to inform them of the 
MERCY's purpose and capabilities. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  On a broader note, Col. Supnet said his task force, 
recently relocated from the island of Jolo where it played a more 
direct combat role in the Philippines' counterterrorism efforts, had 
to make adjustments in Lanao del Norte.  Some of his men were former 
Muslim insurgents from Jolo who had integrated into the AFP, and 
were now separated from their families still on the island.  His 
 
MANILA 00001108  002 OF 002 
 
 
troops also had to adjust their attitude in dealing with armed 
insurgents.  On Jolo, the governor had banned the carrying of 
weapons in public, making it easier for the AFP to patrol.  In Lanao 
del Norte, however, insurgents traveled across the province with 
weapons in plain view, posing a more visible challenge to AFP 
authority, though in fact direct conflict seemed less likely in 
Lanao del Norte. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment:  Iligan and Lanao del Norte present striking 
political, economic, and social contrasts.  Iligan is an 
industrialized, overwhelmingly Christian enclave bordering rural, 
predominantly Muslim Lanao del Norte.  Still, discussions in both 
places indicate very strong support for the MERCY's proposed 
missions.  MERCY planners are examining the feasibility of Governor 
Dimaporo's request for a medical team to visit his provincial 
capital, in addition to stopping in Iligan city.  End Comment.