Balikatan

The Balikatan series is an annual event aimed at improving RP-US combined planning, combat readiness, and interoperability while enhancing security relations and demonstrating US resolve to support the Republic of the Philippines against external aggression.

Balikatan is conducted to meet RP-US obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty and to fulfill RP-US mutual training and readiness requirements. The Phillipine Constitution does not allow long-term basing by another country in the Philippines. The last of the US military bases at Subic and Clark were closed in the early 1990s. The first Balikatan exercise was conducted in 1991. In 1995 the Philippines ended Balikatan because of a dispute over the Visiting Forces Agreement. That agreement gives the United States jurisdiction over crimes committed by military personnel while on duty in a foreign country. It was reinstated in May 1999 despite protests from the Catholic Church and other anti-U.S. elements in the Philippines. The Visiting Forces Agreement provided for expanded military cooperation after coming into force in 1999. The Balikatan resumed in 1999 after being suspended.

Balikatan 2003-1

In July 2002 Manila agreed to host for nine months beginning in October 2002 joint military exercises involving what could be the biggest deployment of US troops since the Americans left their bases in Clark and Subic in 1991. The exercises, with eight battalions totaling 4,000 troops, in Luzon and Mindanao would be the biggest and longest to be undertaken by Filipino and American soldiers. The training of light reaction companies (LRCs) alone would take up to four months and three months for the battalions. An agreement covering the transfer and storage of supplies and weapons to be used during the war games or similar activities would be concluded before the start of the exercises. Maneuvers would likely be held in an army boot camp north of Manila as well as in the southern Philippines, possibly including the southern island of Jolo, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.

Balikatan 2002-2

The United States has announced that the purpose of the Balikatan 2002 exercise is to improve the Philippines/US combined planning, combat readiness and interoperability. The exercise will also enhance security relations and demonstrate U.S. resolve to support the Philippines against external aggression and state sponsored terrorism through training in joint/combined operations and conduct of other related activities consistent with the Mutual Defense Treaty. 2002-2 is a regularly scheduled exercise that was planned well before September 11. Its scenario does not directly involve counter-terrorism, and it is unrelated to Balikatan 2002-1 in the southern part of the country.

Balikatan 2002-2 is the eighteenth in this series of exercises, which began in 1981.

Phase I of Balikatan 2002, a Combined Task Force seminar/command post exercise, will be conducted from April 22 through May 6, 2002. This will exercise a Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters Staff and augmentation personnel on crisis action planning and course of action execution at the operational level with a focus on peace enforcement operations. Phase II includes cross training, field training and humanitarian civil assistance exercises from April 22 through May 6, 2002. The cross training and field training portions will enhance the interoperability of U.S. Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Philippines (AFP). The humanitarian civil assistance will improve U.S./AFP military civic action cooperation while training civil military operators to work together in a Combined Joint Task Force structure with a focus on civil assistance. They will conduct multiple medical, dental, veterinary and engineering civil assistance projects during this phase.

There are several humanitarian and civic assistance projects scheduled during 2002-2 by both Philippine and American forces. These include veterinary and dental teams providing free clinics, and engineering projects designed to improve the local infrastructure.

The exercise is held on the island of Luzon.

Balikatan 2002-1

The government of the Philippines is using the term Balikatan 02-1 to describe the counter-terrorism training effort in the southern Philippines.

In the Philippines, US troops began military exercises with Philippine soldiers against Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who have been linked to the al-Qaida terrorist group. The joint military excercises began on 15 January 2002 and include 1,650 US troops including 150 special forces troops. The excercises were conducted with the Philippine armed forces in Zamboanga and Basilan Island, which are roughly 1000 km south of Manila. Most of the American troops trained at a base near the city of Zamboanga, across the water from Basilan. This phase of the joint campaign was to last six months.

The Phillippine Defense Secretary stated that the purpose of the operation is to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf and free a Philippine nurse and an American missionary couple [Martin and Gracia Burnham] taken hostage in May 2001. The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a Philippine nurse, Deborah Yap.

In addition to helping conduct operations against Abu Sayyaf, US troops are to help upgrade communications of the Philippine military in the south and to provide training on new, US supplied equipment that includes helicopters, weapons and night vision tools. The US government increased military assistance to the Philippines from $2 million in 2001 to $20 million in 2002.

The ongoing Balikatan 02-1 in Basilan was governed by Terms of Reference [TOR], in response to concerns that the US troops would engage in combat with Abu Sayyaf. This marked a departure from prior excercises in that the lethal rules of engagement are involved. US forces can advise, assist and train Philippine units, but they are not supposed to engage in direct combat. American soldiers in the Philippines can engage in combat in self-defense if they come under attack. The TOR governing the 660 US troops and 3,800 Filipino soldiers was put in place to allay fears that the Americans will engage in combat operations, considering that the exercise sites are near the combat zone areas in Basilan.

02-1 was conducted in three (3) phases. Phase 1 is the Preparation Phase when a series of planning conferences and exploratory talks will be held to determine priority areas of concern to train the two forces. Phase 2 is the Training and Field Exercise Phase covering about a 4-month period. Phase 3 is the Redeployment Phase wherein participating US and RP personnel are returned to their respective units.

As of late March 2002 there was a proposal for the deployment of 300 more US troops in Basilan, where there were already 660 US soldiers.

In late March 2002 it was revealed that a total of 2,665 US soldiers would take part in the RP-US Balikatan 02-2 exercise, beginning in April 2002. This statement by Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes was in contrast to the previous announcement by Armed Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan that 1,700 US troops would be involved. Reyes also said that 10 more military exercises involving US troops would be held during 2002, though these would be smaller than Balikatan 02-1 and 02-2 and would be short [two-day to one-week] exercises. No TOR was required for Balikatan 02-2 because there was no threat of hostile action in Luzon.

On 06 June 2002 American missionary Martin Burnham was killed dead and his wife Gracia hospitalized after a rescue attempt by the Philippine military. Philippine nurse Edeborah Yap also died in the fighting in the southern Philippines. The Philippine soldiers continued to pursue the kidnappers. The Abu Sayyaf had kidnapped the Burnhams and 18 others on 27 May 2001 last year from an island resort. The Burnhams were celebrating their wedding anniversary at the time.

In mid-July 2002 US troops began packing up and loading their equipment onto a US Navy ship anchored off the southern Philippines, as the joint six-month anti-terror operation between the countries ended. The US participation in the operation officially ended on July 31. Both Manila and Washington said the six-month operation was a success, with the killing in June 2002 by Philippine troops of top Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya.

About 100 US soldiers would remain behind on Basilan to continue to advise the Philippine military on its war on terror.

Balikatan 2001

Exercise BALIKATAN 2001 was held from 26 April to 10 May 2001 in the Republic of the Philippines (RP). RP and U.S. military personnel from all branches of service, working shoulder-to-shoulder in the heat and the rain, cross-trained in military operations such as air rescue, amphibious operations, close air support, small arms training, and staging support. They also built and renovated schools and provided much-needed dental, medical, and veterinary services for barangays near Clark International Airport. Barangays are basic Philippine political units for planning and implementing government policies, programs and activities in the community.

BALIKATAN 2001 provided joint/ combined training to improve combat readiness against an external attack on the Philippines, as covered by the1952 Mutual Defense Treaty between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States.

BALIKATAN was part of the Exercise TEAM CHALLENGE series. Designed as an umbrella exercise, TEAM CHALLENGE's goal is to improve combat readiness and interoperability by tying together joint combined exercises with Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and other interested countries. BALIKATAN 2001 incorporated TEAM CHALLENGE scenarios, such as training in peacekeeping, humanitarian and civic-assistance operations.

Balikatan 2001 was specifically designed to improve RP-US armed forces combat readiness in joint and combined operations, and interoperability between RP and US services through the exchange of training skills and techniques. Balikatan 2001 specifically serves as the base line concept and benchmark for future Balikatan exercises.

Balikatan 2001 was composed of eight major events and several support activities. These events are seminar/workshop, cross trainings, field training exercises and civil military operations. Support activities include command and control, force protection and security operations, information and public affairs, protocol, personnel, medical and evacuation, logistics, communications, legal, engineering and exercise related constructions, and liaison.

Balikatan 2001 was conducted within the constraint of the available resources of AFP and US, consistent with the provisions, intent and spirit of the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement. The conduct of Balikatan 2001 was approved by the RP-US Council of Foreign Ministers through the Mutual Defense Board Co-Chairmen, the CSAFP and USCINCPAC. For the year 2001, the exercise area was limited to the islands of Luzon and Palawan.

BALIKATAN 2001 began 26 April with formal ceremonies at the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Camp Aguinaldo. Philippine Vice President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona welcomed the American forces with these words, "Our relationship with the United States is borne out of longtime friendship and partnership that remains steadfast ...over 100 years. We are committed to a new page in Philippine-American relations - one founded on equality and mutual respect. We want to share better experiences, so that we can promote a more meaningful peace in the years ahead."

Exercise events began 27 April. Participants in a combined joint seminar, held 27 April to 3 May, addressed crisis-action planning followed by a practical exercise. They focused on peacekeeping and noncombatant evacuation operations in conformity with the TEAM CHALLENGE concept. The various services of the two nations also began field training 27 April. The cross-training in various tactics, techniques and procedures represented the type of combined operations that would occur if the two nations were to work together in a contingency operation.