ILOILO CITY, April 8 (PNA) — Troops of the United States of America and the Philippines have jointly started the conduct of a series of disaster response trainings in the province of Capiz as part of the “Balikatan Exercise 2015”.
Report reaching here Wednesday afternoon said the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response Exercise has formally took off on Tuesday thru the Basic First Responders Training held in Camp Macario Peralta, headquarters of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division (3ID) based in Jamindan, Capiz.
Close to 105 participants that included 82 military personnel from the 3ID, Philippine Army, 13 reservists from the 6th Regional Community Defense Group and 10 personnel from the Capiz Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council participated in the training.
The US and Philippine troops will also conduct a series of practical exercises in basic life support, primary medical care, rescue procedures and mass evacuation simulation as well as seminar in civil-military operations exchange and humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
Lieutenant Commander Catherine Eyrich, head of US Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force for Balikatan Exercise in Panay, said the joint exercise aims to continue the active military-to-military partnership between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and US Armed Forces particularly in humanitarian and civic assistance in times of tragedy and calamity.
Capiz was chosen as venue for the joint US-PHL Balikatan Exercise 2015 considering that the province is one of areas in the region that was devastated by the super typhoon Yolanda in November 2013. (PNA)