June 3, 2006:
The government and the MILF expect to have worked out the final details, for a peace deal, by the end of the Summer. These details include economic issues, like property rights, jobs creation and development of new enterprises.
June 2, 2006: Malaysia has warned the Philippines that interrogation of 11 recently captured Islamic terrorists indicates that the group, Darul Islam, still has bases in the southern Philippines. Two of the captured terrorists were Filipino Moslems. Malaysia is apparently sharing this information, and captured documents, with the Philippines. Darul Islam helped carry terror bombings in Indonesia in 2002, but most of its members fled Indonesia because of police pressure. The group was reported to be in the southern Philippines in the last few years, but the Filipino counter-terror commanders believed they had found and shut down all the terrorist camps. Intelligence agencies in the region are trying to trace new supplies of money local Islamic terrorists are getting. When the terrorists get more money, the chances of more terror attacks goes up. The cash is believed to be coming from Middle Eastern sources, but now couriers are often used to deliver it, and catching them is difficult.
June 1, 2006: A hundred kilometers south of the capital, the local governor was injured, and two bodyguards killed, when his SUV was hit with two roadside bombs. The NPA was suspected, as they go after local politicians.
May 29, 2006: The U.S. embassy announced that it had paid $500,000 to two men who provided information that led to the arrest of Islamic terrorists last year. The announcement pointed out that the U.S. has long had a program for paying rewards for those who provide valuable information that can be used in the war on terror.
May 27, 2006: In the south, NPA gunmen tried to ambush and kill a local anti-communist government official. They failed, leaving two NPA rebels dead, and six wounded. Four security troops were also wounded. Meanwhile, also in the south, an NPA leader was assassinated, apparently as a result of disputes with communist politicians.