By Roel Amazona/PNA
TACLOBAN CITY — American soldiers will soon start arriving in the city before the end of February for the upcoming two-week 2019 Pacific Partnership Program.
Maria Lumen Tabao, Tacloban City Information Office head, said Wednesday that meetings have been conducted for the Pacific Partnership Program on the second event after 2014.
Pacific Partnership is an annual deployment of forces from the Pacific Fleet US Navy, in cooperation with regional governments and military forces, along with humanitarian and non-government organizations. This year’s event will be held from March 10 to 24.
The first meeting was held on Monday and was presided by Armed Forces of the Philippines Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil-Military Operation Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, 546th Engineer Construction Battalion Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Ronilo Cudal, and Dr. Gloria Fabregas, representing the city government.
Tentative activities include beach and coastal cleanup and tree planting, press engagements, visits to school and orphanages, medical missions, refurbishment of a rehabilitation center, and construction of an evacuation center in northern Tacloban.
“Some ground works, especially on construction, will start this February by personnel from the army engineers, but the official program will last for two weeks from March 10 to 24,” Tabao said.
“This has a big impact on us. We will gain more by learning from their expertise,” he said.
In 2014, more than 300 servicemen from the United States, Japan and Australia landed in Tacloban to participate in the Pacific Partnership Program, just few months after the devastation of Super Typhoon Yolanda. Their works included engineering, medical, veterinary and other aid work.
Among the engineering works they did was the construction of two-classroom buildings at the Castilla Elementary School in Palo, Leyte, four-classroom buildings and two-science buildings at the San Fernando Central Elementary School in this city and repair of the orthopedic building at the Tacloban City Hospital.
