The Philippine government is leaving it to the UN to prevent Afghanistan from using the Taliban to train an estimated 50 Muslim rebels who could be future leaders of the Abu Sayyaf or other Muslim separatist groups, a senior official said.

"The Philippine government will leave it to the United Nations on how to stop the reported training of Filipinos in Afghanistan," said Vice-President and foreign secretary, Teofisto Guingona. He added that the UN is the country's best bet in preventing the reported 50 Filipinos from becoming experts in terrorist activities.

"We don't have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan and we don't have the right to knock at Afghanistan and ask for these Filipinos (who were reportedly being trained by the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan). We have to wait for a UN action," Guingona noted.

"If the report is true, then there is a design on the part of some to cause further damage in the southern Philippines," he added. The Philippine government has not yet officially received a copy of the report, said Guingona, but he added that it came from Russian intelligence reports.

Russia is now interested in the training of terrorists in Afghanistan because most of the mujahideens, who fought against the former USSR in Afghanistan were trained there with the help of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said an expert.

The expert added that prominent leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the Abu Sayyaf Group saw action in that war from 1980 to 1988.

When former Philippine Ambassador, Reynaldo Arcilla, was appointed a member of the UN Committee of Experts in Afghanistan, he became privy to the Russian intelligence report which said the Taliban in Afghanistan is allegedly training 50 Muslims from the Philippines for terrorist activities.

On June 6, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon met Arcilla in New York and was told about the reported involvement of 50 Muslims in the training camps by the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. The meeting was held to discuss the gravity of the report with respect to the country's peace and order situation in Mindanao and other parts of the country, stated Biazon.

Biazon quoted Arcilla as saying that the recruits are being taught how to attack electrical power grids, airports, railroads, large corporations, hotels and military installations. The recruits, he added, also learned how to track down and assassinate political figures now retired from diplomatic posts.

Biazon claimed that high ranking Taliban members had given the current breed of Abu terrorists the rigid training and capabilities now being used in their kidnapping activities in the Philippines. But Arcilla had admitted he did not go and see the Filipinos in Afghanistan since the UN experts were not allowed to go there, said Guingona.