THE victory of the Philippine military and their American trainers against Southeast Asia’s most-wanted  Malaysian terrorist in Mindanao was hailed yesterday.

Robert Warshaw, Asian Studies Center research assistant, thus urged the U.S. government not to cut the allocation for the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) program as long as the country wants U.S. involvement in counterterrorism training of its military.

Two OV-10 aircraft bombed on Thursday a terrorist stronghold, comprising militants from the al-Qaeda-affiliated groups Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Zulkifli bin Hir, known by his nom-de-guerre “Marwan,” was among those killed, along with two senior leaders of Abu Sayyaf and JI.

“This is a big victory for the Philippine military and its U.S. trainers,” Warshaw said.

He said the JSOTF-P costs around $50 million per year, noting that it is “a drop in the bucket when looking at its cost-benefit ratio.”

“As Washington continues to cut spending, the Pentagon should not slice a penny from this program -- not so long as the Philippine government wants us involved.

The U.S. training force has proven to be one of the true success stories in the global war against terrorists,” Warshaw said.

The U.S. and the Philippines are expanding defense cooperation believed towards securing Philippine territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea.