The Philippines and the United States launched annual military exercises on May 8 but the longtime allies scaled them down which focuses only on counter-terrorism and disaster relief in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot to China and Russia. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE
(Eagle News) – The annual joint US-Philippines military exercises ended on Friday, May 19, with the closing ceremonies participated in by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the U.S. Forces in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
The Balikatan exercises this year lasted for about 10 days. The opening was marked by ceremonies on May 8 in Manila. The exercises mostly focused on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and counterterrorism (HADR/CT) events, as well as subject matter expert exchanges.
The closing ceremony was attended by Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana and U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim.
The Philippine and U.S. forces conducted community engagement activities and engineering civic assistance projects on Panay, Leyte and Samar and did other humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and counterterrorism (HADR/CT) events.
“Today’s dynamic and ever changing security landscape, continue to bring challenges brought about by terrorism, threats to cyber and maritime security, as well as natural and man-made disasters,” said AFP chief-of-staff, Gen. Eduardo Año during the closing ceremonies of the 2017 Balikatan exercises, held at the AFP Commissioned Officers Club in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
“These traditional and non-traditional threats put our capabilities, determination and ability to adapt to the toughest test. But these challenges also offer opportunities for us to further strengthen our ties,” Año said.
The trainings were done mainly in Luzon and surrounding areas.
The training focused on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and counterterrorism operations to improve response effectiveness and speed in the event of natural disasters and other crises that endanger public health and safety.
“I am certain that the new learnings from this year’s exercises will enable us to raise the level of our inter-operability,” Año said.
This is the 33rd Balikatan exercises, and it is still not clear if this will be the last.
The Balikatan exercises involved 2,800 service members from the Philippines and 2,600 from the United States.
