MANILA, April 21
(Xinhuanet) -- A total of 624 U.S. Marines
arrived at the former U.S. naval
base in Subic Bay in the northern
Philippines Sunday for another round of
joint military exercises
coded Balikatan (Shoulder to
Shoulder).
The U.S. troops, who came from the American military
base in
Okinawa, Japan, formed the biggest contingent of about 2,700 U.S.
soldiers who will participate in the scheduled two-week war games
starting Monday at different venues on the northern main island of
Luzon,
the Philippine News Agency Sunday reported.
At least 39 U.S.
military aircraft and a warship will be
deployed for the exercises, in which
more than 2,800 Filipino
solders will take part.
Over 1,000
American soldiers reportedly have already arrived in
batches since last week
for the exercises in Luzon, which are said
to be designed more for external
defense and conventional warfare.
This is just the latest of a
series of massive U.S. military
deployments in the Philippines, one of the
staunchest allies of
the United States in the region.
Militant and opposition groups have planned to hold
demonstration rallies on
Monday to protest the exercises, saying
the deployment of U.S. soldiers on
Philippine soil is an insult to
the sovereignty of the country.
A thousand American soldiers are already in the south
participating in the on-going Balikatan exercises that began in
late
January to help the local military hunt down the Abu Sayyaf
group,
allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden,
the suspected
mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks on the
United
States.
The American military forces in the south include the
reinforcement of 340 servicemen who arrived in the island of
Basilan
Saturday, 280 of whom are military engineers assigned to
build airstrips,
pave roads and work on other infrastructure
projects to facilitate
transportation of materials and personnel.
The U.S. military
has earlier deployed 660 soldiers in the
southern Philippines, including
some 160 special forces in Basilan,
where the Abu Sayyaf bandits have been
holding hostage an American
couple and a Filipino nurse for 11 months.
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