RP Navy vessels fired shells that hit village

Philippine Navy vessels, taking part in the recent Balikatan war exercises with American troops, fired the artillery shells that hit a remote fishing village in Zambales last Feb. 26, the Visiting Forces Agreement Commission (VFACOM) said yesterday.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr., who chairs the commission, said Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes informed the VFACOM that an investigation into the accidental shelling of Sitio Talisayin in Barangay Pundaquit, San Antonio, Zambales, yielded this finding.

The VFACOM requested the probe after it verified the report of local officials that four shells fired by naval vessels believed taking part in the Balikatan exercises fell on Talisayin, damaging several trees and sending 15 families there fleeing in terror.

"From all indications, only Philippine Navy vessels figured in this incident," Siazon said, adding, "The United States Navy was in no way involved."

In a report, Reyes identified the four Philippine Navy vessels who fired the artillery shells that hit Sitio Talisayin as the BRP Rajah Humabon (PF-11), BRP Quezon (PS-70), BRP Rizal (PS-74) and BRP Pangasinan (PS-31).

Reyes said the four vessels fired a total of 43 rounds, failing to hit only two of their targets.

"The possibility of BRP Rizal to have overshot the target cannot be discounted," Reyes said. "In addition to the high explosive shells, the 40-mm. guns of the four Navy vessels were also fired and it was reported that seven rounds missed the target."

Vice Admiral Luisito Fernandez, Navy flag-officer-in-command, reported that an ocular inspection showed traces of projectiles in three areas of Sitio Talisayin.

He said one projectile initially hit the sandy area and subsequently struck a tree; another hit the beach and disappeared in the undergrowth; and the third landed on the undergrowth portion of a hill.

Fernandez reported to Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, co-chairman of the VFACOM, that four ordnance demolition experts from the Naval Special Warfare Group at Sangley Point in Cavite, were dispatched to Sitio Talisayin to search for possible unexploded projectiles.

Meanwhile, Reyes said the unexploded shell recovered by a member of the VFACOM monitoring team from the village was an old, rusty US-built anti-aircraft projectile.

Reyes said Talisayin used to be the "impact area" for US naval vessels conducting live fire exercises when American troops were still in Subic.

"It is not a remote possibility that unexploded ammunition may be present in the area," he said.

Last Friday, a fisherman was killed and his three companions were wounded when an unexploded shell they recovered underwater near Los Frailes Island in San Antonio, Zambales, exploded.