2,000 US soldiers expected in VFA war exercises next year

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said here yesterday that some 2,000 US soldiers are expected in the country next year for the resumption of joint military exercises under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

"This time, they will be strictly monitored even during their "port calls usually spent on wine, women, and songs." Mercado said.

At the same time, Foreign Affairs Secretary, Domingo Siazon said that the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACom) is expected to widen its powers to include the authority to issue guidelines on the safe conduct of joint RP-US war games.

"We have learned our lesson from the Cebu incident," Mercado said in a press conference with Siazon after a top-level meeting on the VFA held at Mimosa Leisure Estate here.

He was referring to the mauling of a taxi driver by three US sailors during a port call in Cebu.

Mercado said that the VFACom is expanding its monitoring operations to cover not only the joint military exercises, but also port calls of US soldiers.

A number of US soldiers spend port calls in entertainment establishments, particularly in Olongapo and Angeles cities where red light districts still flourish even after the US bases they hosted closed in 1992 and 1991 respectively.

"But the way I look at it, we don’t expect many port calls outside the (military) exercises area because the US Navy itself has already limited port calls and visits after the bombing of one of its vessels in Yemen," Mercado stressed.

Mercado also said that he has already issued instructions to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be "more strict in securing areas used for live fire exercises because of the possibility of unexpended ammunition."

He said that the VFACom has already acknowledged that the explosion that killed two children and wounded another in Toledo City in Cebu earlier this year was a result of the joint "Flash Piston" exercises conducted under the VFA earlier this year.

Saizon said that a "working group" has finalized five amendments to the executive order creating the VFACom for implementation during the 18-joint military exercises slated from April to May next year.

The amendments are the integration of the Department of Tourism and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in the VFACom, wider VFACom powers and functions in issuing safe conduct guidelines for war games, submission of annual report on the exercises to the President, empowering the VFACom to investigate any VFA-related incident and the "institutionalization" of community monitoring councils and exercise task forces in all areas where VFA activities held. — Ding Cervantes