The Balikatan (BK) 2018 joint military exercises between the United States and the Philippines open today with US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Y. Kim and Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana leading the ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Filipino Soldiers launch a joint amphibious landing with US Soldiers on the shores of Casiguran, Aurora as part of the Civil Military activities from the sea of the 17th US-Philippines Balikatan excercises. PHOTO/ Alvin Kasiban

Lt. Liezl Vidallon, BK2018 public affairs director on the Philippine side, said yesterday that this year’s joint military exercises will not only focus responding to natural calamities but also man-made emergencies.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Emmanuel B. Salamat, AFP Northern Luzon Command (NoLCom) Chief who is also the Exercise Director on the Philippine for this year’s Balikatan, will join high-ranking defense and military officials from both the US and Philippines at the opening rites.

Vidallon said every year both American and Filipino forces are trying to level up the training and this year’s 34th iteration of the two countries’ biggest annual military exercise is no exception.

“For example, the humanitarian assistance and disaster response training last year focused only on natural calamities. This year, we will also train for man-made disasters like, for example, a chemical attack,” she said in broken English.

Vidallon said those who participate in the exercises every year learn new tactics, techniques and procedures and they will apply what they have learned from the previous exercise.

“Mutual defense kasi ang balikatan (and) is more on interoperability of both forces, and then counter terrorism and HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) so scenario based itong Balikatan (the Balikatan is scenario-based),” Vidallon said.

Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) is an annual military exercise between the AFP and the United States Pacific Command.

Balikatan 2018 features humanitarian civic action activities in pre-selected areas in Cagayan and Central Luzon.
On May 9, there will be an Amphibious Landing at the Naval Education Training Command, San Antonio, Zambales while on May 15, 2018, there will be a combined

Arms Live Fire Exercise at Colonel Ernesto Rabina Air Base, Tarlac, (Crow Valley).

However, the Amphibious Landing and combined Arms Live Fire Exercise between the two countries are not open for media coverage as directed by higher authorities.

The closing ceremony of Balikatan 2018 will be held at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on May 18.

By Francis Wakefield

Source: news.mb.com.ph

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In the beginning, there were five beating hearts in the life raft.

Deadly Tropical Storm Kai-tak — which would eventually take 54 lives — was brushing the waters they’d been sailing off the Philippine island of Dinagat and their 18-metre yacht, Katerina I, had been taking on water for several hours.

Initially, Whangaparaoa-raised Laurie Miller, one of three men on the yacht once owned by US broadcaster Walter Cronkite and host to his powerful friends Bill and Hillary Clinton, wasn’t too worried.

He’d set off an emergency locator beacon before the men and two dogs abandoned the Subic Bay-bound yacht at 2pm on December 13 last year.

There were plenty of provisions tucked inside the inflatable covered raft. And the wonders of modern technology assured Miller the wait for rescue wouldn’t be too long.

But for four days the men would sit in waist-deep, urine-soaked water as waves roaring like freight trains smashed against them.

With no food or water for most of that time, one drank his own urine. Later, Miller would secure his ailing friend upright so he wouldn’t topple and drown inside the raft. But he wouldn’t survive.

Miller this week shared the miraculous tale for the first time, while back in Auckland visiting family.

The crew of Katerina I, pictured at the start of their voyage from which one would not survive: Anthony “Johnny” Mahoney, left, Lionel Ansselin and Laurie Miller. Photo / Supplied

US broadcaster Walter Cronkite sails with then-US president and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea, in 1998. Cronkite previously owned the Katerina I. File photo / AP

The first sign of trouble came just after midnight on December 13. A strange noise was tracked to the forward thruster — a prop through the hull that moved the boat sideways when mooring.

“Lionel suggested the mount had come loose,” Miller said.

“He’d put it in after he bought the boat. It was a 300mm, quite big for the boat.”

They cleared out the water but at 4am Miller heard another noise. Lifting the floor plate, he saw water.

“We were obviously taking on water but I’d been assured by Lionel he had a huge bilge pump and it wasn’t a problem.”

“We found hoses leaking off generator sets, refrigeration wouldn’t work … coolant lines for the generator were rotten.”

Believing the water was coming in around the forward thruster, he closed the seacocks, worked the hand pump for 90 minutes and started a bucket brigade.

“But it was catching [on us].”

The motor was lost — water came over it — and by afternoon Katerina I was sunk to the decks.

Winds were now 60 knots, the sea 3m and it was raining heavily, Miller said.

Miller worried a big wave over the bow could take the yacht and its life raft.

“Then we’d be really screwed.”

Far from shore and climbing into the eight-person raft, Miller still wasn’t too worried.

“It’s like [when you’re] working. You’ve just got to keep following a path.”

The emergency locator beacon signal had been picked up by Australian authorities.

‘Like a washing machine’
The first night was the most violent.

Miller dropped anchor to stop the raft tipping but it must have broken, because they rolled twice and landed upside down.

“It was like being inside a washing machine — bang, bang.”

Jack Russell cross Spotty was lost, along with all provisions except the flares and a second beacon.

The flares and the second dog, Lucky, would be washed away the second night, when the raft rolled again. The next day Miller set off the remaining beacon.

The saltwater sore scars all over Miller’s body tell their own story of conditions.

“We were sitting in water up to the waist all the time. If anybody tells you that a life raft is dry they’ve not been in one.

“And you can’t get up in those seas to urinate over the side, so the water you’re sitting in has urine in it.”

Miller, barefoot and clad in shorts, shirt, sea smock and inflatable lifejacket, fared better than Johnny.

“Johnny at one stage came up with the idea that you could drink your urine twice. I found a bit of plastic where the cylinder for the life raft was and he actually managed to catch some of his urine and drink it at one stage.

“I wasn’t that desperate yet.”

Time seemed to pass quickly, but Miller couldn’t really explain why.

“Maybe shock, maybe you nod off and sleep while you can. The days go by, you just sort of switch off.”

The tragedy unfolded in Philippines waters. Graphic / Phil Welch

On day three a ship appeared in the distance, but they could do nothing.

By the following morning, the situation had become serious.

Rescue
Mahoney was delirious, had tried to take his lifejacket off a couple of times and Miller was so worried he secured him upright.

“[I worried] he’d fall over in the water in the raft and drown. He was away with the fairies.”

It was about 1pm when Miller heard a motor. Local fishermen in a tiny boat had stumbled across the raft.

On the return to land, an almost 100km journey to the city of Tandag, Miller again tried to help his friend.

“I tried to give Johnny some water but he kept clamping his mouth shut and saying, ‘No, Mum, I don’t want any.’ I prised his teeth open, and hoped the hell he didn’t bite me, and I got some water in him.”

But it was too late.

Later he struggled to find a pulse on his friend, and hospital staff eventually delivered the bad news.

Miller’s hands were “swollen like a boxer’s”, his crotch had gone black and his friend was dead.

“I kissed him on the chin and said goodbye to him from everybody.”

Miller, who spent four days in a Tandag hospital and two days in a Cairns one, never imagined all three wouldn’t make it out alive.

“I’m a supreme optimist. But now I look back I think we were probably about 24 hours away from joining Johnny.”

Laurie Miller’s hands were “swollen like a boxer’s” after his ordeal. Photo / Supplied

Miller still looks to the sea with wonder and affection. He has been back on the water, and he’ll go offshore again, when the body’s up to it.

He has to reconcile the knowledge Katerina I was found, de-masted and with a hole in its side, on Dinagat.

“There are times I’ve sat and second-guessed myself… the what ifs. Had I done something a little different, maybe Johnny would be alive, maybe the dogs would be, maybe it would’ve turned out differently.

“I try not to [though]. I done what I thought was the right thing at the time.”

Where was the help?
Laurie Miller wants to know why no one comes to the Katerina I crew’s rescue?

A spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority told the Herald on Sunday this week they detected activation of the two distress beacons in the Philippines search and rescue region.

AMSA contacted the Manila Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) Philippines — the authority responsible for the co-ordination of search and rescue in that area.

The centre, which is based at the Philippine Coastguard, confirmed receipt of the notifications and said it was co-ordinating a response, the spokesman said.

The Herald on Sunday was unable to reach the Philippine Coastguard.

Miller said information he’d received under the Freedom of Information Act indicated the Philippine Coastguard didn’t help the men because they were in shark-infested waters and because of the tropical storm.

He told his story so people knew if they got into trouble in Philippine waters,help might not come.

“Or that it might put pressure on the Philippine Coastguard, so they do go out and help.”

Source: www.nzherald.co.nz

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SENATOR Richard Gordon on Sunday called on the government to consider reopening the Subic Bay International Airport in a bid to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila.

Gordon, who served as tourism secretary during the term of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said runway congestion at the NAIA has caused delays in international and local flights.

The delays, he added, has become one of the factors that has impeded the what should be a thriving economy with the government needing to address the problem immediately.

Re-opening the Subic Bay International Airport, along with the operation of Clark International Airport in Pampanga, may help solve the congestion problem at the NAIA and could even encourage more tourists and investors into the country.

“Tourism is the biggest victim of NAIA congestion because most of the tourists who visit us use NAIA as their gateway to the country. Delayed flights discourage investors from bringing in their businesses here and it also turns tourists off,” said.

He said that there could be good teamwork between Clark and Subic because they were only 30 to 45 minutes away from each other and passengers from Manila could take the ferryboat from Manila to Bataan then proceed by land to Clark or Subic.

Gordon reiterated his call to reopen the Subic Bay Airport after he got a first-hand experience of the inconvenience caused by runway congestion.

Gordon on April 15 was on a plane to Istanbul, which was scheduled to take off at 9:45 p.m., but was delayed for more than one hour at the runway.

“We had to wait on the runway for more than one hour before we were given clearance to take off. I was afraid we would miss our connecting flight in Istanbul,” he said.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority on May 2017 had earmarked P300 million for the upgrade of  airport facilities in addition to a P540-million appropriation that had been proposed for the project.

The upgrade, which was planned during the time of former SBMA chairman Martin Dino, includes the installation of new aviation equipment, like instrument landing systems, Doppler and Global Positioning System-radio navigation system.

JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA

Source: www.manilatimes.net

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SUBIC, Zambales: Olongapo City Mayor Rolen Paulino has warned owners and representatives of beach resorts and waterfront establishments here to adopt measures to clean up their surroundings, including putting up waste treatment facilities and upgrade their properties based on the Department of Tourism (DOT) standards or face closure.

BY PATRICK ROXAS, TMT

photo by: Ocean View Facebook page

Addressing a gathering of businessmen invited by the city’s tourism and engineering departments, Paulino said they are with the national government’s tough stance against environmental pollution in tourism destination areas in the country.

He said those based in Olongapo, especially in the Barretto area where beachside business establishments are located, must now address their sewerage and septage facilities, among other concerns to prevent contributing to environmental pollution in the city and Subic Bay.

The city government also informed resort owners the plan to put up a waste drainage along Barretto in identified areas, as well as a Sewage Treatment Plant.

Paulino also warned tourism–oriented establishments that the city government will only issue or renew business permits of establishments that comply with Department of Environment and Natural Resources and DOT requirements.

source:manilatimes.net

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Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday assured that all facilities for the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games will be finished promptly, and this includes the New Clark City.

The area, which will host the centerpiece athletics and aquatics events, is being built on a 9,450-hectare land in Capas town, Tarlac by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

“We will make sure that no glitches would ruin our hosting of the Games,” said Cayetano, appointed by President Duterte as chairman of the SEA Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc).

“This early, even our major projects like the New Clark City has September of next year as target of completion. That’s a tall order, but it can be done.”

READ: PH begins construction of ‘world-class’ facilities as it gears up to host 2019 SEA Games
A majority of the events will be held at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, through the support of the Clark Development Corp.

Other events will take place in Subic Freeport Zone in Zambales and will get support from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

Metro Manila will host other events such as basketball and volleyball.

“But we will showcase spots outside of Metro Manila . . . We have coordinated with the provinces within the fringes of hosts Clark and Subic to showcase their best before our guests,” Cayetano said, adding that local tourism expects a boost around the time the Games get underway.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

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