RP-US Balikatan 07 set in February

Balikatan set in February
By Ronron
January 8, 2007

Jolo, Sulu - The RP-US Balikatan exercises will resume anytime next month.

This was the assurance of US Embassy in Manila Charge d’ Affaires Paul Jones when interviewed Monday after he inspected a US-funded road project here.

“In February, we’ll start again the Balikatan,” Jones said.

Sought for confirmation during a press conference later, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. said: “As we understand, the exercises under Balikatan will resume as scheduled in February.”

The officials, however, did not give specific dates of the war games since the technical working groups of both sides are still working on it.

The US last month announced the postponement of the exercises due to the custody row involving convicted rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of the US Marine Corps. But after he was transferred to the US Embassy in Manila before the end of the year, the US government said the Balikatan will resume.

Smith was found by a Makati City court guilty of raping of Filipina last November 1, 2005 in Zambales after participating in another RP-US exercises.

“As we have said all along, any kind of training would be good for our forces, in fact good for both sides. This is not to say that without the training, we cannot survive. We can do our own training,” Esperon said.

But he said to learn interoperability, the use of modern equipment, and the continuing fellowship of both forces are some things only the Balikatan could offer.

The said exercise usually involves thousands of troops from both sides to participate in war games held in Luzon and Mindanao, as well as civic military operations./DMS