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The country’s top military commander on Monday said the
Philippines is studying the possibility of expanding joint military
exercises with the United States to a multilateral one that includes
other antiterror allies.
At the closing ceremony of the two-week joint
maneuvers Balikatan Philippine-American war game, Gen. Hermogenes
Esperon Jr., Armed Forces chief of staff, said there are advantages
into pushing for a multilateral war game and the idea is
“something that is evolving.”
“It is better to do things altogether, and we
not only talk of the security of the Philippines, but the security
of the region itself should be looked at,” he said.
Thailand, Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Singapore sent observer teams to this year’s Balikatan,
which involved 6,000 American soldiers and 2,000 Filipinos, focusing
on cooperation to deliver humanitarian assistance at the time of
natural disasters.
Balikatan, or “shoulder by shoulder” in
English translation, is based on the Visiting Forces Agreement
signed by the Philippine and the US governments in the late 1990s.
The US is the only foreign country the
Philippines has an agreement with on collaboration of military
exercises.
“Once we are able to sign a status of visiting
forces agreement with other countries, then that will pave the way
for multilateral exercises,” he said.
A similar proposal for Philippine-Australian
bilateral war games is sleeping on the senators’ table.
Australian advisers have visited the southern
Philippines in the past and from time to time helped with
investigations into bombing attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiah (JI)
and Abu Sayyaf militants.
Both groups are blamed for some of the deadliest
attacks in the Philippines in recent years and are known to be
working side by side in the jungles of southern Mindanao.
In the past, the Philippine government had
acknowledged that US intelligence help has led to the deaths of top
Abu Sayyaf militants.
-- AFP and Xinhua
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