THE coming Balikatan exercise between American and Filipino troops next month is not meant to provoke any country and is meant to hone the skills of the two sides on territorial defense.
Balikatan spokesman Col. Michael Logico issued the remarks in response to possible criticisms from China, which has opposed past exercises between the two armed forces, and from cause-oriented groups opposed to United States military presence in the country.
“There is nothing for them to criticize. First of all, a treaty exists and we are bound by treaty obligations to conduct this activity. Second, we are conducting a military exercise inside our territory,” Logico said, referring to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US.
The agreement requires both parties to respond to any armed attack in metropolitan territory of either parties or on the island territories or on armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.
“We are learning something from them, they are also learning from us,” Logico said of the Americans. “It all boils down to an improvement in our combat capability and combat readiness,” he added.
This year’s Balikatan exercise, which will be held from April 11 to 28, will involve some 17,600 troops on both sides, the largest number of participants since the annual exercise began in the 1990s.
One of the activities that will be conducted is a ship sinking exercise off Zambales fronting the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which has been under Chinese control since 2012.
“Why should they be critical? We have to remember that this exercise is for the defense of the country and there’s nobody else who will be defending this country except us Filipinos,” said Logico.
He added the Philippine military is upgrading its skills under the Balikatan exercise, reiterating that Filipino troops are training to improve their capability to “do our job,” referring to their mandate to defend the country.
“This is also not a provocation. We are not provoking anybody by simply exercising,” said Logico, adding the military can do whatever it wants inside Philippine territory, including its territorial waters.
“Everything that we are doing here is only within our territory. Our exercises are not aggressive. We term our exercise as defenses so we are doing maritime defense, territorial defense, coastal defense,” said Logico.
He said the at-sea live fire exercise will be conducted off Zambales, specifically near the base of the Naval Education, Training and Doctrine Command.
He said the exercise will be within the country’s 12-nautical mile territorial waters.
Scarborough Shoal is more than a hundred nautical miles from the province.
“If other countries or other critics might think in the wrong way, we would like to tell them that this is actually a form of deterrence and there’s a difference between deterrence and provocation,” said Logico.
“A deterrence is when we are discouraging other parties from invading us. A provocation is when we are taunting other countries to invade us. There’s a difference because we are only exercising within our limits and none of our exercises, none of our operations, are aggressive by nature, they are all defensive,” said Logico.
Asked what message the military wants to send by exercising off Zambales, Logico said:
“We’ll we’re exercising. We don’t need an excuse to exercise. We need to do this to improve our combat readiness… The message that we are (sending) is that we are preparing our forces, we are achieving that level of combat readiness.”
Logico said the Americans have procured a decommissioned fishing vessel, which is a little over 200 feet long, to serve as a target during the live fire exercise.
“We are going to fire at a target and we have a target vessel that the US procured for this purpose. The HIMARs (high mobility artillery rocket system) artillery will not be firing just into the water. They will be firing at a target,” said Logico.
“We’ve been able to acquire a decommissioned, an old fishing boat, measuring a little over 200 feet and then we will tow it out into the waters and we will hit it with all the weapons systems that we have, ground, navy and air (assets),” he added.
Logico said there are other smaller “makeshift targets” in the exercise.
Meanwhile, two F-22 fighter aircraft from the US Pacific Air Forces landed for the first time at Clark Air Base last Monday, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) said yesterday. They were accompanied by a KC-135 refueling tanker aircraft.
PAF spokeswoman Col. Maria Consuelo Castillo said the aircraft are in the country as part of the Bilateral Fighter Subject Matter Expert Exchange.
“Based on the information given to us, yes,” Castillo said on whether this was the first time an F-22 aircraft landed on Philippine soil.
Castillo said the Americans brought in the aircraft to “show capabilities.”
“The topic (of the engagement) is about fighter aircraft operations so they have to bring in their aircraft to demonstrate their capability,” said Castillo.
Castillo said the aircraft were placed on static display “for the appreciation of PAF commanders and aircrew.”
Last Tuesday, Castillo said the aircraft had a demonstration on air-to-air refueling. Later in the day, they were escorted by three PAF FA-50 fighter jets out of the country’s airspace.
“The bilateral exchanges focused on the capabilities of fighter aircraft operated by the two air forces as a prelude to other upcoming engagements to promote air domain awareness, agile combat employment, interoperability and other bilateral air objectives,” said Castillo.
