US TROOPS IN BALIKATAN PROBED FOR DRUG USE

CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE -- A number of United States servicemen
participating in the large-scale joint military training exercise here
known as Balikatan-04 are being investigated for drug use, a
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency official said.

Supt. Jerome Baxinela, PDEA acting director in Central Luzon, said the
probe began after the PDEA, the US Naval Criminal Investigative
Services and the US Drug Enforcement Agency arrested at least 10
suspected drug pushers at Clark between Feb. 26 and March 2.

The agents allegedly recovered .01 gram of shabu (methamphetamine
hydrochloride) and 17 grams of marijuana from the suspects.

Baxinela said the buy-bust operations were conducted after the USNCIS
and USDEA received reports that the suspects were preying on American
troops, selling them marijuana and shabu.

He said the investigation would aim to find out if the visiting US
soldiers were using illegal drugs.

The report released by the PDEA regional office at Clark did not give
details on how the pushers managed to get near the US troops. For the
duration of the two-week war games, American forces were billeted in
housing inside this former US military base.

The suspects, four of them women, are detained at the Angeles City
jail just outside Clark.

Baxinela said they have been charged with violating Republic Act 9165,
the law against the manufacture, sale and use of illegal narcotics.

In a report, he quoted officials of the US agencies as saying that the
successful operations had "tremendously made an impact on the
prevailing situation in the mentioned areas of operation (Clark and
Subic)."

Baxinela said the PDEA would "continue to conduct anti-drug operations
in the areas to sustain the gains of the recently concluded operations
and create an atmosphere of safety for visiting foreigners like the
Balikatan participants."

Meanwhile, the USS Blue Ridge, the flag ship of the US Seventh Fleet,
made a brief visit to the Philippines on Wednesday where staff
officials of the Japan-based command held talks with Filipino Navy
officials, the US Embassy said Thursday.

The command-and-control ship dropped anchor off Luzon for a 12-hour
call amid the ongoing RP-US joint military Balikatan exercise, an
embassy statement said.

Fleet Commander Robert Willard received on board a Philippine Navy
delegation led by Vice Admiral Ernesto de Leon.

"This was an opportunity for Seventh Fleet staff to meet with their
counterparts in the Philippine Navy. These meetings are routine and
improve our military inter-operability," said Commodore Dave Borah,
Southeast Asia policy officer for the Seventh Fleet.

More than 2,000 US troops are taking part in two weeks of military
exercises with Filipino forces. The war games end Sunday.