A RANKING officer of the United States military praised the Philippine armed forces for their good performance during the 30th RP-US Balikatan exercises.
“Last thing I want to say to you, as Filipinos, you should be very, very proud of your armed forces. Of what they’re able to accomplish now compared to what they’re able to accomplish 30 years ago,” Maj. Gen. Richard Simcock, deputy commander of US Marine Corps Pacific Forces, said during the closing ceremony of the Balikatan exercises at Camp Lapu-lapu yesterday afternoon.
Maj. James Barros of the US National Guards unit in Hawaii that conducted the urban search and rescue course during the exercises, said that the skills of the participants are much better now.
They are planning to hold the full training exercise longer and the participants will have to undergo more complex scenarios in the next Balikatan.
According to Maj. Gen. Emeraldo Magnaye, executive director of the Balikatan Exercise, studying and assessing the performance of every Balikatan exercise are the reasons why the Philippine armed forces are improving.
“I have watched that the capability of Philippine armed forces are getting better, better, better. That is good for the Philippines. That’s good for US. And that’s good for the Asean region,” Simcock said.
Simcock is also happy and proud to give support to the Philippine armed forces and develop their skills that are needed in the future.
“Philippine soldiers, they respond to real world missions like typhoon, earthquakes. My soldiers are just highly trained. What we get from Philippine soldiers are the challenges they had to deploy in real world mission,” Barros said when asked what they learned from Philippines soldiers.
Balikatan is an annual joint exercise to improve the inter-operability between the United States and the Philippine military.
Magnaye said that on its 30th year, Balikatan or Shoulder-to-Shoulder focused on “non-traditional” roles of defense including disaster responsiveness.
According to Lt. Cmdr Mark Enriquez of the AFP Central Command, the exercises will simulate real world problems to develop and improve the skills of both countries.
Balikatan started a week after the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) was signed in Manila on April 29./Kent A. Ugalde, Xavier University Development Communication
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