Needing To Get Tougher on Terror

With the Philippines transfixed by the ongoing power struggles in Manila between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and critics demanding her resignation, it's easy to forget that the country is also ensnared in another conflictagainst insurgent communist rebels and Islamic radicals in its remote provinces. On March 27, after weeks of relative calm, an explosion ripped through a Catholic-run cooperative store on the predominantly Muslim southern island of Jolo, killing nine and wounding 20. Authorities said the bomb's construction and its detonation via cell phone pointed to Abu Sayyaf, a roving band of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists and kidnappers operating in the restive...