Guingona’s authority over ‘Balikatan’ war games clipped

Vice President Teofisto Guingona has lost the authority to approve the holding of this year’s and future Balikatan military exercises between Philippine and US troops.

Malacañang is now the sole approving authority for the war games.

Guingona told reporters yesterday the National Security Council (NSC) ruled last January that the procedure for deployment of troops under the 1951 RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty would no longer be applied to the Balikatan.

Therefore, the Council of Foreign Ministers would no longer have to review any scheduled war games as provided in the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), he added

As secretaries of foreign affairs, Guingona and US Secretary of State Colin Powell – represented by the US ambassador to Manila – are members of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

Guingona said the NSC decided not to apply to the Balikatan the procedure for troop deployment because the exercise does not involve any "external threat" as provided under the Mutual Defense Treaty.

However, Guingona said every Balikatan military exercise will still have to go through the Mutual Defense Board, which is comprised of Armed Forces chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and Adm. Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of US forces in the Pacific.

Both the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Mutual Defense Board are provided for under the Mutual Defense Treaty.

Guingona said the Balikatan war games in Central Luzon are held every year in accordance with the VFA, but that the Balikatan in Basilan was a "special case" undertaken by the Philippine and US governments in reaction to last year’s Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US.

Terms of Reference (TOR) were needed for the Balikatan in Basilan because it is not a treaty but a "special case" that was signed by representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the US Embassy, he added.

Speaking at yesterday’s formal opening of the Balikatan at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Guingona said it was important for Filipino and American soldiers to constantly train in peacetime to confront any security threat.

"In 1898, 1899, 1900 to 1901, we (Philippines and US) were fighting each other," he said. "In 1942, 1943 to 1944, we were fighting together. And today, we are exercising together. We have withstood the best and worst together... whether in peace or in war, our soldiers must be ready for any and all occasions, ready for any and all contingencies."

Guingona also proposed that the next Balikatan be "expanded" to include poachers, apparently alluding to Chinese fishermen encroaching on Philippine waters.

"We are a maritime nation," he said. "It is estimated that poachers from other nations enter into our seas and ravage our marine resources, our clams, our corals, our seashells and other marine species. It is estimated that damage to marine life caused by poachers have reached $50 billion a year."

Joint training between Philippine and US troops must be conducted "to preserve and protect these resources for the benefit of the Filipinos," he added.

Meanwhile, some 5,600 US and Philippine troops began a three-week joint exercise in Central Luzon yesterday that will focus on war games and civic projects as the two countries bolster their relationship in the face of terrorist threats.

Two groups staged small protests outside the US Embassy in Manila, calling the maneuvers an infringement on Philippine sovereignty and claiming that American forces failed to clean up toxic wastes when they pulled out of bases here.

Turnout was much smaller than for demonstrations when US troops began arriving in January for a six-month counter-terrorism training exercise in Southern Mindanao aimed at helping Filipino troops wipe out the Abu Sayyaf.

The war games in Central Luzon are expected to end on May 6, with the last week devoted to civic operations, ranging from construction projects to medical and dental clinics for local residents.

It carries risks because New People’s Army rebels have warned they will attack any American who ventures into what the guerrillas claim is their territory.

In Clark Field, another batch of US Marines arrived yesterday, bringing to at least 822 the number of American troops deployed in the former US air force base.

Twenty-six military aircraft are already here for the April 22-May 4 war games.

Earlier, the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement reported that some 2,003 US troops and 39 aircraft will take part in joint exercises in Clark Field, Crow Valley in Tarlac, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, and Ternate in Cavite.

Five C-130 transport planes loaded with engineering equipment landed at Clark Field yesterday for the Balikatan war games, as the number of US troops swelled to 1,800.

US Marine Lt. Albert Escalis, information officer of the joint information bureau for Balikatan, said the rest of the US troops will arrive aboard US Navy ships from Okinawa, Japan in the next few days.

US Marines are expected to hold amphibious exercises with Filipino troops in Ternate, Cavite, he added.

The Balikatan in Central Luzon is the 17th in a series of large-scale military exercises between the Philippine and the US, beginning in 1981.

It was suspended between 1996 and 1999 because of the absence of a treaty governing the presence of a large number of US troops in the country.

After the Senate passed the VFA in 1999, the Balikatan war games resumed in 2000. – With reports from Ding Cervantes, Ric Sapnu