Guam troops to join US, RP forces in Mindanao

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – More than two dozen members of the Guam National Guard are heading to southern Philippines where US troops are training Filipino soldiers to combat terrorism. The soldiers are part of the Matua Platoon and would be deployed for at least six months in the restive region of the southern Philippines, according to an article on Kuam News. “By next week 31 members of the Guam National Guard's Matua Platoon will head to the Southern Philippines. These men will be gone for six months and they are the only Guam representatives that will be deployed in the Southern Philippines at this time," the article read. Kuam News said the Guam National Guards underwent various types of training scenarios that would assist them on the field while on deployment. It was unknown whether the Guam troops will be deployed to Sulu province where American forces are assisting Filipino soldiers in fighting the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group. Some 600 US troops are deployed in the southern region since 2001, most of them in Zamboanga City and Sulu, where they maintain a forward operating base. The training of Filipino soldiers by their American counterpart are allowed under the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). The Philippine Constitution, however, prohibits foreign troops from joining in actual combat operations while in the country. - Al Jacinto/KBK, GMANews.TV