272 US soldiers arriving at Clark

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — At least 272 US soldiers are expected to arrive for war games to be held in this former US air base and parts of Bulacan starting Monday.

Joining the Americans in the "Balance Piston" military exercises are 221 Filipino soldiers.

The next Balance Piston air and land exercises are slated for June, while eight other war games would be mostly naval exercises known as Cooperation Afloat and Readiness Alert Training (CARAT).

Amado Valdez, executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACom), told The STAR that the Philippine government expects the US Congress to consider US military assistance as a moral obligation and not a matter of charity.

"It is time to make the Americans realize that they need us as much as we need them," he said. "Our relationship must be quid pro quo."

Valdez said military personnel are being trained to help the VFACom monitor the coming joint military exercises.

"They will be given enough awareness about fundamental issues on criminal jurisdiction, pollution, Customs regulations, immigration laws, quarantine and prohibited zones," he said.

Valdez did not say whether the US would redirect military exercises from Japan to the Philippines, saying that the number of US troops arriving for each exercise would be "smaller" that those in previous years.

Meanwhile, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran said yesterday American soldiers must not be allowed to make the Philippines a playground.

"The Philippines is not a playground for US troops," he said. "It’s not the problem or the burden of the Philippines to help the United States find suitable training grounds. "The US is one of the biggest countries in the world, and it can and should use its own land area and bodies of water to train its own troops."

Beltran said the government should deny the request of the United States for the use of 2,000 hectares of Philippine territory as a site for military exercises.

"The very presence of US troops in the poverty-stricken areas where they’re deployed signals an increase in the incidence of prostitution," he said.

Beltran said the prolonged stay of US troops and their equipment in the country has also upset the ecological balance in places where their facilities have been set up.

"Clearly, the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration couldn’t care less if the Philippine environment is damaged, and Filipino women and children are molested and prostituted by the US troops," he said.

Beltran said the people of Japan, Thailand and Hawaii, which is an American state, want US troops to leave their territories.

"It’s an outrage that the Philippine government is willing and eager to take in the US military," he said.

Beltran was reacting to a statement of Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio, deputy chief of staff for education and training, that the government will allow US troops to set up training facilities in the Philippines after foreign troop movements have been restricted in Japan and Thailand.

Teodosio said the US has been scouting for a suitable site for military exercises after Japan, Thailand and Hawaii imposed restrictions on US training facilities in their territories.

"I understand in my talks with the Americans that their world, in a sense, is getting smaller everyday," he said.

Teodosio said Japan, which hosts tens of thousands of US troops, has imposed a law wherein the American soldiers could only train in a "small" area.

"It takes a heavy toll on nature, so they want to rotate (training sites) to give the (plant life) time to recover" he said. "They don’t have that luxury in Japan anymore."

Teodosio said the Americans also faced the same problems "in Hawaii and in Thailand" where they also conduct military exercises.

"They see the Philippines, especially if they will be involved in any conflict in Asia for example or any tropical country, as the best place to train. They look forward to be allowed to come over to the Philippines and be allowed to train at our training facilities."

Teodosio said a small group of US Special Forces advisers is set to start counter-terrorist training for 18 companies of Filipino infantry in the Zamboanga City on the second week of February.

The training "may go beyond this year," he added.

However, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the Americans cannot convert any part of the country into an "alternative training site" for their troops.

"The training conducted here in the Philippines by the American forces are bound by what is provided in the existing Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement and nothing other than that," he said.

The training of Filipino soldiers in counter-terrorism by the Americans does not mean that the US can set up training facilities in the country as they had done in Japan, Thailand and Hawaii, he added. — Ding Cervantes, Romel Bagares