January 23, 2002, AFP, Philippines clamps down on prostitution around US military site,

January 23, 2002, AFP, Philippines clamps down on prostitution around US military site,

MANILA, Jan 23 (AFP) -

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has ordered the social activities of US forces in the Philippines to be curtailed so they do not visit prostitutes, her spokesman said Wednesday.

About 600 American troops are to take part in joint military exercises in the southern Philippines over the next six months to train Filipino soldiers in combating the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, which is accused of being linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden.

"The Armed Forces of the Philippines would be working out the actual strict procedures for R and R (rest and recreation) because the president has emphasized she does not want this presence of US troops to start any prostitution activities," Arroyo's spokesman, Rigoberto Tiglao, said.

Arroyo, the Philippines' second woman leader, "was very clear on it, and she emphasized that this should be the concern of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the American personnel," Tiglao told reporters.

He said the government was studying one proposal for the US troops "to go out from their barracks in groups, like a guided tour and not on a single basis."

The presence of thousands of Americans troops attached to two US bases in the country for nearly a century until their 1992 closure helped stoke prostitution.