“Balikatan” or military exercises have begun between the Philippine Army and the American soldiers.
On Monday, February 14, one of the Balikatan or joint combined exchange training programs for 2022 began.
Balance Piston 22-1 is one of the annual bilateral exercises that began to be held at Fort Ramon Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija.
This program allows the special forces units of the Philippine Army and the US Special Forces to exchange knowledge, tactics, and methods on various aspects of being part of the army.
According to Army Spokesperson Col. Xerxes Trinidad, in the bilateral exercise, the Filipino and American soldiers will be able to further strengthen their knowledge and skills in combat management, armed conflict, mission planning, command, and control structure, and much more.
“It would definitely benefit our soldiers aside from our counterparts from the US Special Forces. We have to learn from them, observe them how they operate. This would actually increase our inter-operability and collaboration to our partners in the Army,” said Trinidad.
Aside from the Balance Piston exercise, many more training will be conducted over the three weeks.
These include Human Rights and Law of Armed Conflict, Crisis Action Planning, Fundamentals of Reconnaissance, Tactical Combat Casualty Care, and culmination exercise.
Military exercises between PH Army, US troops begin
The Philippine Army leadership is confident that the annual exercise will intensify and strengthen the capability and capability of Filipino soldiers to carry out successful missions.
Trinidad added that both American and Filipino soldiers would benefit from the bilateral exercises.
“Ang benefit n’yan ay mutual. There are things that we are good at. There are practices that our elite forces are doing and of course our counterparts will be able to learn and grasp some of the techniques that can be used particularly in sabihin natin itong unconventional warfares,” he said.
The three-week training will last until March 7.
In July 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte has canceled the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States.
Palace said Duterte and US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III agreed that the ties between the Philippines and the US could be improved through “enhanced communication and greater cooperation, particularly in areas of pandemic response, combating transnational crimes, including drug war, maritime domain awareness, rule of law and trade and investments.”
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