Japan to deploy 3 SDF ships to crisis-hit Philippines, triples aid to $30m

The Japanese government said Friday it would deploy three Self-Defense Forces (SDF) vessels to the typhoon-ravaged Leyte island in the Philippines, with as many as 1, 000 SDF personnel expected to assist with relief efforts there and throughout the Philippines. Japan's Foreign and Defense Ministry officials said Friday the operation, which is expected to swing into full gear as early as next week, would mark the biggest mobilization of SDF troops for a relief mission ever overseas. With Leyte island and its surrounding waters, being used as the primary base for Japan's troops, personnel will also be deployed from the vessels to the hard-hit city of Tacloban where emergency supplies, including food and fuel are running dangerously low, ministry officials said. Transportation of supplies and troops between Leyte and the mainland by Japan's first-responders has already taken place utilizing Japan's Air Self-Defense Force's Osprey planes -- their first official deployment outside of Okinawa -- as well as regular helicopters, defense ministry officials said. SDF officials here also said that they had already successfully airlifted vital medical equipment, medicine to combat the rampant spread of infectious diseases in the area, water purification units as well as generators to central Cebu Island, but additional Japanese medical personnel have also been stranded in Manila awaiting regular flights to Cebu, officials here said, hampering the ongoing relief mission. Efforts have also been hamstrung by civil unrest and with some areas posing security risks to troops and rescue workers. "What we are watching most carefully is the local security situation," Shigeru Iwasaki, chief of the SDF's Joint Staff, said at a recent press briefing. "We will gather information not only from the Philippine government, but also from U.S. military troops who are working there so we will be able to secure the safety of our personnel," he was quoted by local media as saying, with reference to instances of looting and gunfire in some of the disaster-hit areas that remain un-policed. Next week's deployment from Japan will greatly assist international relief efforts underway on the ground in the Philippines, Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Friday, with calls for Japan to bolster medical and rescue efforts, which have been hampered by fuel shortages making it difficult for vehicles to access those in need and civil unrest which has compromised the security environment there. Onodera said the two Maritime Self-Defense Force's transport vessels are being equipped with helicopters and supplies at the Kure naval base located in Hiroshima Prefecture, prior to their disembarkation. The government also announced Friday that it was tripling its emergency aid package for the Philippines to more than 30 million U.S. dollars, with 2 million U.S. dollars worth of emergency relief goods being channeled through Japan-based charities and non- governmental organizations here, the foreign ministry said. The ministry confirmed that it has earmarked a total of around 52 million U.S. dollars in emergency funding, which also comprises a 20 million U.S. dollar contribution to its poverty reduction fund at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).