Reyes: Congress to see draft Balikatan TOR

Malacañang would submit to Congress the draft of the terms of reference (TOR) for the special Balikatan 03-1 joint war exercises in Sulu and other parts of western Mindanao, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said yesterday.

Reyes gave the commitment to Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense.

"For clarity and consultation, we would submit the TOR for Balikatan 03-1 to the Senate and to the House of Representatives because understandably, they want to be clarified also," Reyes said. "It’s better to be clear."

Reyes and Magsaysay were the guests during the taped launching of the weekly RPN Forum held at the Ahoy There Restaurant in Quezon City.

"We will submit the TOR for the Balikatan 03-1 to Congress as we did with the TOR of Balikatan 02-1 held in Basilan last year," Reyes said.

He explained the Basilan TOR has constitutional basis since it was ruled upon by the Supreme Court. "So the TOR for Balikatan 03-1 might be narrower and it will not go beyond the outer limits of the Basilan TOR," he said.

For his part, Magsaysay told the forum that it would take much time for Congress to go over the draft Balikatan 03-1 TOR.

"We went through it (TOR) last year and since the TOR is the framework governing the implementation of Balikatan 03-1, it means there’s nothing much new there. We will just go through the details," he said.

Magsaysay expressed his support for the holding of Balikatan in Sulu in following the TOR of the joint RP-US war exercises held last in year in Basilan.

He said the island province benefited from the socio-economic benefits out of the civic-military humanitarian component of the joint anti-terrorist training exercises.

Reyes, however, admitted they have yet to draft a copy of the new TOR for Balikatan 03-1.