ZAMBOANGA CITY, 22 June 2006 — A United States Navy high-speed vessel arrived yesterday in the southern Philippines and unloaded fresh supplies for the ongoing joint humanitarian mission between American and Filipino soldiers in the troubled region.

The 11,000-ton vessel, HSV-Joint Venture, was visiting the Philippines to support a joint humanitarian and civic projects effort, dubbed “Project Bayanihan.”

Commander Kathy Wright, a US military spokesman, said the ship was carrying supplies destined for locations in the southern Philippines, including the Sulu Archipelago. “The supplies will be unloaded in various ports, including Zamboanga, throughout the coming months,” she said.

These supplies, she said, included hospital beds, medical supplies and school books, donated by the US Agency for International Development’s Books Across the Sea program, and several nongovernmental organizations, including Knightsbridge International, the 3P Foundation, and the Makati Rotary Club. Wright said the Filipino troops will help to distribute these important supplies in Sulu.

“The mission of the Joint Venture supports the longstanding ties between the United States and the Philippines, as well as the two nations’ continued commitment to work together for those in need of humanitarian assistance,” she said.

It was the third time the catamaran-hulled high-speed vessel was in Zamboanga City since October last year. The 338-foot HSV Joint Venture last docked in Zamboanga City on Oct. 27 where it unloaded humanitarian supplies worth more than $750,000 or about P42 million.

“We are happy to be back,” Commander Thomas Shaw of the HSV Joint Venture told Arab News in a chance interview.

The HSV can carry up to 400 troops and about 800 tons of military vehicles and equipment, including helicopters.

The HSVs were used in the Iraq invasion and Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand in May last year.

The United States had been pouring in a lot of aid to the southern Philippines as part of an overall war effort to control the spread of Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the region.

Until Monday, the hospital ship USNS Mercy had been in Zamboanga, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to provide free medical consultations and treatment to poor villagers. Many Muslim patients who have never seen a doctor in their lifetime were given world-class treatment in the hospital ship.

Apart from the humanitarian and civic missdions, US forces are also training and equipping Filipino troops to hunt down the militants.