Philippines, US to hold military drills

All-Muslim units eyed

MANILA, April 16, (AFP): The Philippine military said Sunday it would hold annual exercises with US troops next month, reaffirming its commitment to the alliance despite cooling relations under President Rodrigo Duterte.

The 10-day exercises will be the first held under Duterte, who has suggested cancelling the drills and called for the withdrawal of American troops, putting into question Manila’s 70-year-old alliance with Washington as he looks instead to court China.

The outspoken Filipino leader, who has earned international censure for a war on drugs that has seen thousands killed, has since softened his stance on working with the US military. The annual military exercises, known as Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder), will now go ahead in May, focusing on counter-terrorism and disaster response as the Philippines battles Islamic militants in their lawless southern strongholds.

“It will be scenario-based like (preparing for) a big storm hitting the Philippines or the possibility of terrorism,” Balikatan spokesman Major Celeste Frank Sayson told AFP.

“We are safe to say there will be no more live-fire exercises. We (will) focus on humanitarian and civil assistance.”

In previous years Balikatan had evolved from counter-terrorism manoeuvres against Islamic militants to simulations of protecting or retaking territory, as a dispute with Beijing over islands in the South China Sea escalated.

But Duterte, who took office last year, has sought improved relations with China and has set aside the maritime row in favour of economic concessions.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said the exercises would refocus on fighting terrorism, which he described as the Philippines’ top security problem.

The Philippines is battling Islamic militants and pirates in the conflict-torn south, where several groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Security forces in the past week clashed with the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group on a popular resort island, the first attack on a key Philippine tourist destination in recent years.

Duterte

MANILA:

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The Philippine military announced plans to create all-Muslim fighting units on Saturday, with quotas from the Catholic country’s largest religious minority, as it looks to bolster efforts to tackle Islamic insurgents.

Five percent of all new applications will be allocated for Muslims under the new order, military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a statement, adding the eventual aim was to have a dedicated brigade or division to be deployed in the country’s troubled south.

The Philippines is battling Muslim extremist militants in lawless southern regions, some of whom have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Arevalo said the Muslim quota, which roughly reflects the proportion of the religious minority in the population, would help the army operate in areas where it has been previously viewed with suspicion by local people.

“Most of our Muslim brothers and sisters perceive the deployment of almost 100 percent Christian soldiers in their communities as invading or occupational forces,” he said, adding that fellow Muslims would be more aware of religious or cultural “sensitivities”.

The statement did not give details of the existing numbers of Muslims in the military.

The southern region of Mindanao, the ancestral homeland of the Philippines’ Muslim minority, has been locked in a separatist insurgency since the 1970s, with the conflict claiming more than 120,000 lives.