Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Saturday, October 29, 2005

US "mystery" ship in Philippines---explained


Following up on a prior post concerning the allegations of a Filipino legislator who wanted a US ship seized here:
A US diplomat said there was no mystery beclouding the presence of an American navy vessel seen anchored at a wharf here last week.

US Charge de Affairs Scott Bellard issued the statement during the turnover of the humanitarian goods Thursday following local and national media reports that a mysterious US warship was sighted and photographed near the shore of this city.

The ship that was sighted and photographed and published in local and national newspapers looked the same as that of the High-Speed Vessel-X1 (HSV-X1) named as the USS Joint Venture that docked Thursday here to unload US$750,000 or P42 million worth of humanitarian goods in this southern port city.

Earlier reports alleged that the ship carried US servicemen to engage in hunting members of an Asian terrorist group believed to be behind the latest bombing in Bali, Indonesia.

“There is no mystery about the ship behind me today,” Bellard said Thursday during the ceremony where he turned over the humanitarian goods to local officials. “It will be used for humanitarian mission,” he added.

The USS Joint Venture unloaded hospital equipment, educational supplies, sewing machines and baby formula that were donated by a US-based non-governmentorganization known as the Share Futures and Ed Artis.

No comments:

Post a Comment