RP-US military exercises kick off Monday

By Ronron
October 14, 2007

Over 3,000 forces from the United States and the Philippines will engage starting today (Monday) in different military exercises and humanitarian activities that will be held in various areas in Luzon to enhance the interoperability of both units.

Philippine Navy spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan said Sunday that the Talon Vision exercise will first start today, while the Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) will follow starting Tuesday. The exercises will end on October 31st.

“The objective of these is to enhance the interoperability of both forces in case time will come that they need to respond to a common humanitarian emergency, to help a place in distress which needs an inherent capability that they have already developed together,” Caculitan said in Filipino.

Caculitan said some 2,700 American participants will be coming from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan, while the Philippines will field in some 700 to 800 members of the Marine Corps, the Navy and the Air Force.

The US Embassy in Manila had earlier said in a statement that there will also be participating troops from the Essex Expeditionary Strike Group, Task force 76 from Sasebo, Japan.

The American contingent will be coming aboard USS Juneau, USS Tortuga, and USS Essex ships, said Philipine Navy Ensign Rommel Rodriguez, the exercises public affairs officer.

The exercises will be held at Fort Magsaysay in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija; Crow Valley in Capas, Tarlac; Clark Field in Pampanga; Subic in Zambales, and Marine Base in Ternate, Cavite.

Humanitarian activities, on the other hand, will be done in Laguna, aside from the exercise venues. These include medical and dental missions, and repair and cleaning of schools.

While the training and exercises will not be held in the terrorism-afflicted areas in the southern Philippines, Caculitan said the participants are expected to graduate as capable in fighting terrorism.

“The smaller tactics involved that will be trained have the anti-terror aspect, but it is not designed to respond to terrorism threat of our country in the south… The small tactics, techniques and procedures in fighting terrorism, yes. But it’s not in any way intended to respond to the threat in the southern Philippines,” Caculitan said.

One of the exercises he cited is the amphibious landing “where there would be ships that would be launching armored assault vehicles.”

“These are troops carrier from the ship, then assaulting a supposedly hostile beachhead. There will be aircrafts here too,” Caculitan said.

Asked what is the policy as regards the rest and recreation (R&R) of the American soldiers to avoid a repeat of the rape of a Filipino woman by a US Marine in November 2005 in Subic, Caculitan said: “That (R&R) is just in the sidelines. First and foremost, they are here to work, to conduct training exercise with their Filipino counterparts. If ever there will be any (R&R), that would be controlled on their part.”

Caculitan noted that in last year’s Talon Vision and PHIBLEX, everything went smooth.

Convicted rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was a participant in the 2005 Talon Vision and PHIBLEX.

Talon Vision and PHIBLEX are annual military exercises between the Philippine and US military sanctioned by the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty./DMS