Annual RP-US Mutual Defense Board meet to be held in Manila

MANILA, Philippines – Top military officials from the US Pacific Command are expected to arrive in the country next month for the 50th annual meeting of the US-RP Mutual Defense Board, which was supposed to be held in Hawaii last Aug. 18 but was postponed due to the ongoing combat operations in Mindanao, an official said yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Gilbert Llanto, Armed Forces of the Philippines deputy chief for plans and a member of the RP MDB team, said that following the postponement of the meeting in the US, their counterparts, led by US PACOM chief Admiral Timothy Keating, agreed to hold the one-day meeting in Manila.

“They understand that it might be difficult for the Philippine team to go to the US due to the operations in Mindanao, so we will have it here at Camp Aguinaldo on Sept. 26,” he said.

Llanto said that instead of the originally planned two-day affair, it would just be held for one day because he said their US counterparts know they are busy with the recent campaign in Mindanao.

The meeting has been postponed twice since June 22, when President Arroyo left for the US.

He said the MDB, which oversees the implementation of joint military exercises between the two countries, should meet because there are activities that need to be approved and submitted to the Council of Foreign Ministers.

“There are protocols, we have to look at other activities, actually our activities scheduled for June were already pushed back, as well as those planned for August and September. We have a lineup of activities that needs to be submitted to the Council of Foreign Ministers,” he said.

But Llanto said there are no large-scale military exercises that were postponed, but only those that are conducted among the branches of service such as the army, navy and air force, as well as exchanges by experts on some topics.

AFP chief Gen. Alexander Yano, co-chairman of the MDB, earlier had requested for the postponement of the meeting in Hawaii when the offensives against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, particularly those who attacked villages in North Cotabato, started during the middle of this month.

The Philippines is a major ally of the US in the global campaign against terrorism.

The US military has been providing “technical” support” in the AFP’s campaign against the Abu Sayyaf and their Jemaah Islamiyah cohorts in the island provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.