Philippines' Maoists may form alliance with opposition

Philippine communist party leaders held talks with a senior opposition senator, Netherlands-based Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison said Friday.

Opposition Senator Maria Ana Consuelo Madrigal confirmed later that day that she had met with leaders of the CPP in the Netherlands.

The opposition and the CPP are looking to form a political alliance to bring down the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.


Netherlands-based Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison, in a 1997 file photo. AFP/ANP photo via Yahoo News.

On Monday, opposition groups filed a new impeachment reqest against the president on grounds that she cheated in the last election and has committed numerous abuses. A similar move last year fell far from achieving the necessary votes.

If an alliance with the CPP is formed, it will be a first in the history of the communist party whose leadership fled the country after failed peace talks in the late 1980s.

Expatriate Filipinos want voice in Charter change

The huge population of Filipino overseas workers is clamoring for a say in proposals for a new national constitution.

Leaders from the United States, Saudi Arabia and other regions are calling for Manila to listen to expatriate workers and digest their views, a report from the Philippine Inquirer said.


Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (R) seen here with Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano at Quirinale palace on Rome June 26, 2006. Seh is pushing for a new constitution and a parliamentary system of government. REUTERS/Handout/Enrico Oliverio-Italian Presidency Press Office via Yahoo News.

Overseas Filipinos contribute billions of dollars in remittances to the natinoal coffers each year, and the Philippines has long been the world's leading exporter of workers.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is pushing for a new constitution that would switch the country to a parliamentary form of government.

Pakistan to send 10,000 more troops to Afghan border

Pakistan will deploy an extra 10,000 troops to guard the Afghan border, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said Tuesday.

A total of 90,000 troops will attempt to prevent the Taliban from using bases in Pakistan to attack targets in Afghanistan.


Pakistani troops guard the mountain region of Shawal along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. AFP/File/Aamir Qureshi photo via Yahoo News.

Kasuri said that Pakistan has the highest stakes in Afghanistan's future stability.

Taliban forces have conducted recent offensives in Afghanistan demonstrating their greatest resurgence since being ousted and since the establishment of the Karzai government.