Page:Allied Participation in Vietnam.pdf/85

 Rh

the Philippine Secretary of Defense informed General Gomes that he had talked with President Marcos; the order for the reduction of the Philippine group stood. The following day the American Embassy received a message from the Western Pacific Transportation Office containing an official request from the Philippine Civic Action Group, Vietnam, for a special airlift on 10, 11, 12, and 13 August 1968 to return home 235 members of the Philippine group.

In a news story released on 5 September 1968, Philippine armed forces chief Manuel Yan hinted that the replacement unit then in training would take the place of the Philippine group in Vietnam sometime that month. Yan reportedly told newsmen that financing of the replacement unit would come from the Philippine armed forces regular budget which had already absorbed financing of the civic action group. These were funds made available from other savings in the national budget. He further stated that the mission of the replacement unit was the same as that of the Philippine Civic Action Group, Vietnam, but that greater emphasis would be placed on medical and dental services. In addition, the table of equipment had been changed to increase the number of surgical and rural health teams by five each. To achieve this increase there was a corresponding reduction in the number of men assigned to the engineer battalion. In order to maintain the capabilities of the engineer construction battalion, men assigned to the security battalion were being cross-trained in engineer skills. Philippine Civic Action Group members who had completed a two-year tour in South Vietnam were replaced during the period 16 September–15 October 1968. The strength reduction and table of equipment change were intended to re-emphasize the noncombatant role of the group to the Philippine Congress and the Philippine people.

On 17 September, the official designation of the Philippine Civic Action Group, Republic of Vietnam, I, was changed to Philippine Civic Action Group, Republic of Vietnam. This was merely an administrative change within the armed forces of the Philippines.

In the Philippines, after the 1968 reduction, the issue of the Philippine group in Vietnam was temporarily out of the public eye. President Marcos had apparently decided that the Philippine national interest was best served by the group's continued presence in South Vietnam. This presence would guarantee a Philippine right to sit at the Vietnam settlement table and to claim a share of the war surplus material. Domestic critics in the