Manila concerned over scrapping of war games
Source: Reuters
(Fixes typo in slug) MANILA, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Washington's decision to cancel annual military exercises with the Philippines was a setback for relations, Manila said on Saturday, but a spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroya said she understood Washington's reasons. On Friday, the U.S. announced it was pulling the plug on large-scale joint military exercises with the Philippines next year in an escalating dispute over custody of a U.S. Marine convicted of raping a local woman. The marine is currently in jail in the Philippines, but Washington insists that under the so called Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) it has signed with Manila he should be in U.S. custody. "The cancellation of these exercises are a setback to our military modernisation programme, the interoperability of Philippine and U.S. forces and to the strategic alliance of both countries," said Ignacio Bunye, a spokesman for Arroyo, in a statement. Thousands of U.S. troops were expected to participate in the annual "Balikatan" (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games late next month to test the interoperability of the two countries' armed forces in dealing with common conventional security threats. Bunye said Manila understood how Washington felt over the custody issue involving Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, sentenced by a local court to life imprisonment for raping a 23 year-old woman inside a van last year. On Saturday, a group of students and Filipino wives of U.S. soldiers said they planned to sing carols and bring gifts on Christmas day for Smith, asking jail authorities to allow them to visit the U.S. Marine. "Our Christmas wish for Dan is for him to be released from jail," said Grace Santos, a wife of a U.S. Marine officer and leader of the group Justice for Daniel Smith. The group, organised on Dec. 4, the day Smith was found guilty by a Philippine court, believed Smith was innocent and was not given a fair trial. Bunye said the Philippine government was firmly committed to the 1998 VFA and was taking steps to return the sailor to the U.S. embassy's custody as soon as possible "under our judicial processes". "We are not making excuses for the apparent non-compliance with the VFA but we have to seek relief through the justice system that defines the rule of law," Bunye said, appealing to Washington to understand how the system works in Manila. The United States, which ruled the poor Southeast Asian state for about 50 years from the turn of the 20th century, has poured nearly $500 million in military aid to the Philippines since 2000 and sent hundreds of advisers to train local troops fight Muslim militants.
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