US allots $4 million for Basilan projects

Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona has endorsed the deployment of an additional 340 US servicemen, mostly engineers, to undertake some $4 million worth of civil projects on Basilan island, Malacañang announced yesterday.

The Associated Press reported the US servicemen, composed of some 280 members of a US navy construction brigade, or Seabees, based in Okinawa, Japan and about 60 marine security escorts are on board a ship off the coast of the country awaiting government approval of the deployment.

The US troops are to be deployed to dig wells, improve roads and expand the small airstrip on the island as part of the civic-oriented "Operation Gentle Wind" component of the ongoing joint RP-US "Balikatan 02-1" military exercises. The projects are estimated to cost $4 million, or roughly P204 million.

Acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable said the American troops are expected to arrive in Basilan "anytime" after President Arroyo announced the approval of the additional deployment at a press forum last Thursday.

Afable clarified that there is no need to amend the terms of reference (TOR) for the Balikatan war games because the 60-day deployment does not constitute an extension of the exercises.

"This is really just a deployment of troops to augment developmental activities. They will be involved in building bridges, small ports and other kinds of infrastructure that may be beneficial to the people of Basilan," Afable said.

The President herself said the other day that the idea for the deployment of US navy Seabees came from Basilan residents as well as local government officials and American military officers who are already on the island to advise local troops on anti-terrorist operations.

Mrs. Arroyo noted that US Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, commander of the 660 US forces involved in Balikatan 02-1, worked out the additional deployment on an informal basis and Washington proposed to implement the proposal immediately.

Wurster is the American co-director of the Balikatan exercises in Basilan along with his local counterpart Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the final lineup of civil works to be conducted by the Americans will be finalized after consultations with local Basilan officials."The socio-economic projects are not training exercises for combat and not intended to assist or advise the fighting elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines," Golez said, adding that Guingona had discussed the matter with Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and AFP chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva.

Golez said Guingona was also briefed on the deployment by US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone and US Pacific Command chief Adm. Dennis Blair.

Golez said the Arroyo administration expects more socio-economic projects to be carried out after a team of US legislators arrive in the country to observe the Balikatan war games.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who hails from Cagayan de Oro City, has also endorsed the deployment of US navy Seabees and said the move would present the "benign face" of US military forces.

Pimentel said the Basilan residents obviously welcomed the looming arrival of the US Seabees and said their impending civil works would have a "salutary effect on the whole Balikatan exercises."

Sen. Blas Ople, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, also endorsed the deployment and said local military engineers may also learn appropriate technologies as have the combat units now working in Basilan with US Army Special Forces.

"Our own military engineering corps can learn new and appropriate technologies from their US counterparts," Ople said. - With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Artemio Dumlao, Aurea Calica, Benjie Villa