US Marines, Seabees start deploying for Basilan projects

ZAMBOANGA CITY – US Marine engineers and Navy Seabees began deploying yesterday for at least 10 construction projects in Basilan aimed at helping local troops wipe out the Abu Sayyaf extremist group.

About a dozen trucks, bulldozers and other construction equipment, escorted by US Special Forces and Filipino soldiers, roared out of an Army base in Isabela City to Maluso town in Basilan.

The naval construction task force includes 340 military engineers who arrived Saturday to build roads and helicopter landing pads, improve two ports, dig wells and clear an unused air strip for a new phase in the joint RP-US "Balikatan 02-1" military exercise.

The convoy created a traffic jam in the center of Isabela as people lined the streets, waving and welcoming the soldiers like a liberation force.

The Department of National Defense (DND) said among the projects is a 60-kilometer portion of the Basilan circumferential road.

"Construction schedule is 60 days to be paced at one kilometer per day. The roads will interconnect the towns of Maluso, Tipo-Tipo, Lamitan and Lantawan and form part of the province’s circumferential road network," the DND said in a statement.

The road network includes the Tabiawan-Isabela City access road, the Kapatagan-Isabela access road, Mahayhay-Maluso road, Maluso-Tumahubong circumferential road, Tumahubong-Camp Uno circumferential road and the repair of two bridges in Maluso.

In Isabela, an abandoned private airstrip will be repaired, improved and widened to accommodate helicopters and C-130 cargo planes.

Piers will also be constructed at Tabiawan town near the headquarters of the Army’s 103rd Brigade and at Port Holland in Maluso while water wells will be drilled in strategic sites in Maluso and Campo Uno and other communities.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the projects were selected jointly by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the US Pacific Command and would contribute to economic development in the island.

"These projects will contribute significantly to the economic development of the province and the improvement of the conditions of the people," Reyes said. –Paolo Romero