THE Philippines and the United States formally opened the biggest iteration of the Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) exercises on Tuesday at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City. The opening salvo was held in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija where Filipino and American soldiers trained side by side in knock-out bunker and room clearing operations.

With over 17,500 combined troops from the AFP and the US Indo-Pacific Command, the 38th edition of the annual joint military drills will highlight four major events: command post exercise, cyber defense exercise, field training exercise and humanitarian civic assistance.