RP-US Balikatan 2015 starts shoulder-to-shoulder work to build school in Puerto Princesa

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 12): RP-US Balikatan 2015 starts shoulder-to-shoulder work to build school in Puerto Princesa

The RP-US Balikatan Exercise 2015’ “shoulder-to-shoulder” engineering civic action projects (ENCAP) have started in Palawan with Filipino-American soldiers starting to lay the foundations of a school building in Barangay Sta. Lourdes on Thursday.

In a text message to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) Saturday, the Western Command’s (WESCOM) 6th Civil Relations Group, Civil Relations Service AFP announced the onset of the ENCAP of the 31st iteration of the bilateral exercise that will also be done in barangays San Rafael, Cabayugan and three others in this city.

”Balikatan 2015 has begun! The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is working shoulder-to-shoulder with partner nations here in Palawan.

Photos posted on April 10 at the Facebook Page of Exercise Balikatan, and documented by U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Wesley Timm showed U.S. Army Sgt. Brad Ball, an electrical engineer with the 643rd Engineer Company, 84th Engineer Battalion, 103rd Engineer Brigade, taking a break to chat with a little Filipino boy at the construction site for a school building project in this city.

The said project is part of both the RP’s and the US’ humanitarian civic assistance engagement.

In another photo, U.S. Army Spc. Jerome Ramsey, a carpenter masonry specialist, and Ball, can be seen bending reinforcement bars for the classroom building in a school that was not immediately identified.

Ball and Ramsey are part of the over 6,500 U.S. soldiers, who will join an estimate of 5,000 Philippine soldiers in this year’s shoulder-to-shoulder exercises in key areas in the country, such as Pampanga, Cavite, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, and Puerto Princesa in Palawan.

WESCOM Vice Admiral Alexander Lopez has been designated as Balikatan 2015’s exercise director.

On April 10, U.S. service members were reported to have participated already in a “subject matter expert exchange that focused on visual storytelling at the WESCOM. The activity reportedly “provides an opportunity for Philippine, Australian, and U.S. forces to continue strengthening relationships and work together.”

Balikatan is an annual scheduled multi-service combined exercises hosted by the Philippines, designed to promote regional peace and security by enhancing inter-operability and readiness of Filipino-American soldiers to terrorism and disaster management.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=752278