Balikatan to resume in February

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 08:04pm (Mla time) 01/08/2007

JOLO, Sulu -- (2ND UPDATE) THE BALIKATAN (Shoulder to Shoulder) joint exercises between Filipino and American troops will resume in February, an official of the US Embassy in Manila said Monday.

"In February we will start again the Balikatan," Charges d'Affaires Paul Jones told reporters here after attending a military command conference presided over by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

"As we undeestand, the Balikatan will resume as scheduled in February," Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told a news conference in Camp Bautista here.

Both Esperon and Jones did not elaborate.

On December 22, the US said it cancelled this year’s Balikatan exercises after a Makati City court refused to return US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, who was convicted of raping a Filipina, to American custody.

The US and Philippine government maintained that the Americans have the right of custody over Smith by virtue of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which governs the actions of troops participating in the military exercises.

The US announced the resumption of the war games after Smith, with the help of the Arroyo government, was transferred from the Makati City Jail to the US Embassy even without a court order.

Smith was with US troops who conducted war games in the Philippines in November 2005, when “Nicole,” the victim’s court-appointed pseudonym, accused him of raping her at the Subic Bay Freeport.

Smith was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years in jail.

"As we said all along, any kind of training will be good for our forces... This is not to say that without trainings, we can't survive. We can do our own trainings," Esperon said.

During the command conference, Arroyo underscored the importance of Philippine relations with the US, as she thanked American soldiers for helping renovate a hospital here.

"These are some of the benefits of our strategic alliance with the US, and indeed, we welcome this partnership," she said.

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