U.S. Officials Open Joint Military Training In South RP

U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney and Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat in Tumaga village, 01 June 2007.

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 1 June) – American Ambassador Kristie Kenney on Friday visited the southern Filipino port city of Zamboanga, where U.S. and Philippine troops are holding a joint amphibious training.

Kenney formally opened the 13th “Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training,” known as CARAT 2007.

CARAT 2007 is a combined naval tactical operations exercise involving fleet forces of both the Philippine and United States Navies. The exercise also focuses on relationship building through social and community service events such as providing free medical, dental, and veterinary care in host communities.

Kenney also inspected the USS Harper’s Ferry, one of three American naval ships participating in the exercise, and met with Philippine Army Lieutenant General Eugenio Cedo, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, to discuss on how to further expand joint humanitarian and development programs in the troubled region.

Local mayor Celso Lobregat welcomed the U.S. official who also toured several American-funded projects for development in the Zamboanga area.

While in Zamboanga, the ambassador visited poor Muslim communities and led U.S. and Filipino officials in distributing some 42,000 books to school libraries.

The books were donated under the Education Awareness Support Effort (EASE) program of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and will go to more than 130 schools, allowing students to have access to encyclopedias, dictionaries, literature and short stories.

She visited the island of Pangapuyan Island, a remote community that received electricity through a program supported by the USAID under the AMORE Project, which aims to provide electricity to more than 400 remote and conflict-affected villages in Mindanao. AMORE also announced an additional $2 million to the program.

Kenney also inspected a hanging footbridge in Tumaga village which was built so villagers can safely and easily cross a river and improve their access to needed health, social and economic services in the town center.

The USAID, through its Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) program, built the new 30-meter long pedestrian footbridge to replace a deteriorating wooden bridge.

After a short tour in the village, Kenney also attended a roundtable discussion on tax collection with Lobregat and Zamboanga business leaders. Zamboanga City is one of 16 Mindanao cities participating in USAID’s and The Asia Foundation’s Transparent and Accountable Governance (TAG) Project.

Under TAG, participating city governments have committed themselves to enacting specific governance reforms to improve services and reduce corruption. Zamboanga City chose to reform its processes for collecting business taxes and issuing business permits. (Chris Navarra)