Army spox says US wants to increase its soldiers for joint exercises

The spokesperson of the Philippine Army on Wednesday said the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) wants to increase the number of its troops who would join the Salaknib exercises next year.

"The Americans brought a brigade minus, meaning hindi nila dinala 'yung buong brigade nila, so the expansion will be for 2020... they will bring a whole brigade kasi nakita rin nila na full brigade tayo, tapos sila brigade minus," Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala told reporters.

"They want na parang equal footing tayo, parang parehong numbers and that is about 1,500 compared to about 900 mga ganyan," he added.

According to Zagala, Salaknib, which means shield in Ilocano, is an army to army exercise being done in Fort Magsaysay to fight terrorism.

"We need to train, taasan natin ang competency natin para magkaroon tayo ng better or more effective in our counter terrorism," Zagala said.

The Salaknib exercises this year took place in March in which more or less 900 American troops had joined.

"Ang first brigade combat team natin is about 1,800 currently... that is the complete brigade combat team so meron tayong first brigade combat," Zagala said. —LDF, GMA News