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Foreign Drugs, Rebels Give Philippines New Causes to Bolster Defense

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - The dispatch of two Philippine coast guard ships to
   the Sulu Sea might normally register as a quick blip on the radar of
   world maritime movement. But shipments of illegal drugs and support for
   violent Muslim rebels cross that sea from other countries into the
   Philippines, which struggles to contain both. The Chinese navy is
   growing stronger not far away, too, and China disputes tracts of sea
   with the Philippines.

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