The United States military provided 525 sets or P178 million ($3.4 million) worth of Personal Protective Equipment to the Philippine Marine Special Operations Group (Marsog) and Inshore Boat Battalion, the embassy said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the PPE, which was already turned over on May 31, consisted of ballistic vests, lightweight, ballistic plates, tactical ballistic helmet, and accessories to improve further the Philippines’ effort for counterterrorism operations.
“The recent force protection equipment delivery will fill critical equipment gaps for Marine Operators within Marsog, a key Counterterrorism and Special Operations unit within the Philippine Marine Corps.,” the embassy stated.
Meanwhile, the five-month battle to retake Marawi City from the clutches of Maute-ISIS Group terrorists showed the AFP had to relearn its former skills like fighting in urban terrain.
This was disclosed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in an interview aired Tuesday by the ABS-CBN News Channel.
The interview took place in Singapore on the sidelines of the 17th Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1 to 3.
“[Previous] lessons we learned in urban area [fighting], which was a skill we used to have but lost along the way because we don’t use it [to train] people on what we call the military operations in urbanized terrain, we never use it, so we stop teaching people until Marawi has come so now we have to reacquire that skill plus the necessary equipment that goes with it,” Lorenzana lamented.
A total 168 soldiers and police officers were killed in the bloody fighting, which started May 23, 2017 and ended in October last year.
An estimated 1,000 Maute-ISIS Group terrorists, including then ISIS emir in Southeast Asia, Isnilon Hapilon, and Maute co-founder, Omar Maute, were killed in the government offensive.
The US Embassy said the equipment would provide increased protection for personnel conducting counterterrorism operations, as well as operations against transnational threats, specifically in the southern Philippines.
The United States, as a longstanding ally of the Philippines, continues to provide support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines through both grant assistance and expedited sales of arms and munitions to assist both long-term AFP modernization goals and urgent counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief requirements.
Meanwhile, the Philippines and the US government recently reaffirmed their mutual commitment to combat human trafficking of adults and children.
In a recent meeting, both US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Michael Klecheski and Acting Philippine Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra pledged to prioritize the fight against human trafficking, stating “we are committed to doing more on this issue.”
Highlighting the progress already made, Klecheski credited the Philippine government’s leadership that resulted in a Tier 1 ranking in the 2016 and 2017 Trafficking in Persons Reports.
Both officials also pledged their continued support for the bilateral Child Protection Compact Partnership.
This partnership, signed by the two governments on April 11, 2017, strengthens response efforts to two types of child trafficking, the sexual exploitation of children online and child labor trafficking, through a victim-centered approach to prosecuting traffickers and ensuring specialized services for child victims.