I usually say the US presence has been continuous from 2002-present... whether or not it becomes permanent is something the Filipinos need to decide. I'm personally not convinced that an indefinite presence in the southern Philippines is in the US interest, and I suspect that we may have achieved as much as we're likely to achieve there. The conflict can be (and has been) supressed to a certain extent, but it cannot be resolved without major reforms on the part of the Philippine government, which I don't expect to be forthcoming. I'm not sure we want to stick around indefinitely.

On RPGs, local news is notoriously unreliable on these details. I'd think it unlikely, though not impossible, that they are being widely used. There is some foreign support for the ASG, MILF, and MNLF, though far less than is often claimed. It normally comes as money, though: moving money is a lot easier than moving shipments of weapons, and there's plenty of hardware available here to anyone with the means to pay.