A joint military exercise between the US and Philippine troops, coded Balikatan, is proceeding smoothly in the north despite earlier threats by communist rebels of the New People's Army (NPA) to attack American soldiers who will set foot in their stronghold, the military said Thursday.

"We are doing everything to protect the Americans against any harm. I think it's (Balikatan) going smoothly," said Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Pedro Cabuay.

At least 600 US and 300 Filipino are involved in the yearly Balikatan training in the southern Tagalog. The focus of this year's exercises were shifted to conduct of socio-civic actions due to the recent typhoon that ravaged Southern Tagalog.

The military earlier said that among others, the Americans and the Filipinos soldiers will be involved in rehabilitation works and construction of school buildings Quezon and Laguna during the two-week exercises which opened on Monday.

When asked if the NPA rebels are capable of carrying out their threat, Cabuay said: "Capability is something, you know, but being able to do it is another thing."

He noted that the NPA in Southern Tagalog is disarray. "They were ordered to enhance or intensify their tactical operations. They are just trying to buoy up their morale which has been sagging for quite some time because of their inability to carry out any tactical operation."

Cabuay assessed that the NPA's strength is just in a few hundreds in Southern Tagalog, and what is worse is that the NPA is faced with a leadership crisis.

Cabuay said that his command has deployed "enough forces" to secure both the Americans and Filipino troops involved in the exercises because "the NPAs might just try to do something to embarrass us while they (Americans) are here."

However, Cabuay refused to say the number of troops assigned to secure the Balikatan participants. "I cannot tell you exactly. We are not authorized to discuss security but (it is) suffice to say that we have enough forces to secure them," he said.

Source: Xinhua