SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Two US Navy vessels carrying some 1,400 US Marines from forward-deployed bases in Japan, arrived here on Monday to participate in join military exercises between the United States and the Philippines within the next two weeks.

USS Juneau (LPD-10), the US Navy’s only forward-deployed amphibious transport dock, and USS Tortuga (LSD-46), a dock landing ship also based in Sasebo, Japan, docked at Subic’s Alava Pier on Monday afternoon for this year’s Talon Vision and Amphibious Landing Exercise (Phiblex).

The annual “war games,” according to the US Embassy in Manila, was designed to “improve interoperability between US forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as well as increase readiness and strengthen the professional relationships between the two countries.”

Aside from Juneau and Tortuga, the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9) is also expected to arrive here on October 28 for the training.

The three warships will be landing US Marines from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Unit in Okinawa, Japan, and American sailors from the Essex Expeditionary Strike Group from Sasebo.

About 6,500 US and Filipino military personnel, the biggest combined contingent in the history of Phiblex, will participate in both ground-air and naval integration trainings, the American Embassy said in a statement.

In the course of the exercise, participants will also carry out community outreach projects in the communities where the training will be held. These include the Olongapo City-Subic Bay area, the Crow Valley area in Capas, Tarlac; Palayan City in Nueva Ecija; Ternate, Cavite; and Laguna.

This year’s Phiblex marked the resumption of the bilateral training program between the United States and the Philippines under the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). 

THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) will release the documents related to the cancelled national broadband network (NBN) project only if the courts will order the agency to do so.

SUPREME Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Monday enjoined justices and judges in Metro Manila to fully implement the rules governing the issuance of the writ of amparo in order to protect the people’s constitutional rights.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza has ordered the indefinite suspension of tree-cutting on Sibuyan Island.

RODRIGUEZ (Rizal) Mayor Pedro Cuerpo on Monday declared there won’t be any garbage crisis in Metro Manila, as he condemned the alleged dirty tricks and wild accusations hurled at him by the lawyer of the sanitary-landfill contractor whose attempt to open a 19-hectare garbage dumpsite has been declared unauthorized and illegal by the town government.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Two US Navy vessels carrying some 1,400 US Marines from forward-deployed bases in Japan, arrived here on Monday to participate in join military exercises between the United States and the Philippines within the next two weeks.

THE recent Supreme Court (SC) decision to lift the temporary restraining order on the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (RIRR) of the National Milk Code (EO 51) has been deemed a “significant victory for infant, young-child and maternal health in the Philippines” by one of the milk code’s strongest backer, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

BUTUAN CITY—Six suspected pimps were arrested while seven teenagers who were allegedly forced to work as prostitutes were rescued by government agents in a raid at a rented house in a barangay here last week.