By Mong Palatino
A series of unfortunate mishaps in the past two weeks has afflicted United States military forces stationed in the Philippines.
On January 6th, a BQM-74E target drone that appeared to be of American origin was found floating in the waters off Masbate, an island province in the central Philippines. Although the U.S. was known to be flying reconnaissance drones to assist Filipino forces, Washington is not authorized to conduct aerial strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Another incident occurred on January 17th, when the USS Guardian minesweeper ran aground on the South Atoll of the Tubbataha Reef, a no-sail zone and UN marine protected habitat in the Sulu Sea in the southern Philippines.
U.S. officials in Manila immediately moved to contain both controversies. In the case of the fallen drone in Masbate, the U.S. Embassy in Manila denied the drone was launched from Philippines airspace and insisted instead that it had been used in a naval exercise in Guam months earlier and ocean currents carried it into Filipino waters.
Read the full story at The Diplomat