US participants in Balikatan 07 reduced due to initial cancellation plans

By Ronron
January 25, 2007

Troops participating in the upcoming RP-US Balikatan Exercises will be much fewer compared to those in the last few years after preparations were interrupted by the initially planned cancellation of the annually-held activity due to the custody row involving US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith last month.

In an e-mail message to Manila Shimbun yesterday, Lt. Col. Mark Zimmer of the US Army Pacific Command Public Affairs said only an approximate 400 American soldiers and 300 Filipino counterparts will be joining this year’s exercises, which will be held from February 18 until March 4th.

Approximately 150 of the American participants will particularly go to Sulu and nearby areas for the civil-military action projects, while the rest will be doing the Staff Exercises at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, and at Clark Airfield in Pampanga.

“The reason the numbers are down is because the Field Training portion (FTX) of the exercise was cancelled because of a disagreement with the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). That disagreement was resolved but it was too late for the FTX to be rescheduled,” wrote Zimmer.

In December, the US Pacific Command announced it was canceling the holding of the Balikatan 2007 because it said the Philippines was not complying with its obligations under the VFA as regards the custody of Smith after the latter was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment for raping a Filipina in November 2005.

Smith was a participant of the Talon Vision and Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) in 2005 when he committed the crime at Subic Bay Freeport in Olongapo City, Zambales.

The 21-year-old serviceman was initially detained at the Makati City Jail upon the orders of Judge Benjamin Pozon on December 4, 2006, but was later transferred on the 29th at the US Embassy in Manila with the approval of the Philippine government’s executive department.

This resulted in the announcement by the US of the resumption of the Balikatan exercises for this year.

In recent years, participants to the Balikatan exercises number in thousands. Last year’s activity gathered 5,500 US personnel and 2,800 Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) personnel. They were supposed to hold activities in Luzon, Cebu and Sulu, but were diverted to Southern Leyte province to do humanitarian activities when a major landslide buried an entire village there.

US Embassy in Manila spokesman Matthew Lussenhop had said earlier that the main focus of the upcoming Balikatan is the socio-civic component, since there are other training exercise opportunities that will be held in the country like the Talon Vision, the PHIBLEX, and the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Exercise.

“We’re estimating that the US will spend $250,000 on Engineering Civic Action Projects and Medical Civic Action Projects for Balikatan 07,” Zimmer said.

“So far, there are no plans to increase this amount, though there will be continuing humanitarian assistance projects after the Balikatan, funded by the AFP and US Joint Special Operations Task Force,” he added.

Last year’s Balikatan was also allocated by the US with some $245,000 for the humanitarian assistance projects./DMS