US, Philippines launch Pacific Partnership disaster response

MANILA, Philippines — The United States and the Philippines on Monday joined allied forces and partner nations in launching Pacific Partnership 2019 – the largest annual multilateral disaster response preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific region – in Tacloban City.

The event aims to improve on disaster response preparedness, resiliency and capacity while enhancing partnerships between participating nations and civilian humanitarian organizations throughout the region.  

Pacific Partnership 2019 includes more than 800 military and civilian personnel from the US, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, South Korea, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

At the ceremony, Deputy Chief of Mission John Law of the US embassy in Manila told participants, “The work that you are doing here today and over the next two weeks is extraordinarily important because you will help make people’s lives better, and we thank you for that.”

US Navy Capt. Randy Van Rossum, Commander of Destroyer Squadron 1, is leading this year’s mission. He is joined by his staff aboard expeditionary fast transport ships USNS Brunswick (T-EPF 6) and USNS Fall River (T-EPF 4). 

Experts in the fields of engineering, medicine and disaster response will partner with each host country to conduct civic action projects, community health exchanges, medical symposiums and disaster response training activities.