/ AFP PHOTO / ROSLAN RAHMAN
MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) — Inspite of earlier remarks of President Rodrigo Duterte wanting to end United States military presence in the country, the US will still construct temporary facilities in selected camps of the Philippine military this year.
This was according to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, but he clarified that these facilities would only be for humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and that there would be no military equipment that would be kept in the US facilities to be set up in the country.
He said this was part of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that Washington and Manila signed in 2014.
“According to the Pentagon, they will start constructing some facilities in the EDCA chosen camps. I think the first camp where they will develop these facilities is in Basa,” Lorenzana said, referring to the air base in Pampanga near Subic and Clark, the two former major US military bases in the country.
Clark and Subic had since been converted into economic zones.
EDCA is an agreement between the United States and the Philippines to strengthen US-PH alliance. The agreement allows U.S to rotate troops into the Philippines and to build and operate temporary facilities in select military camps in the country for the period of 10 years. This was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary, Voltaire Gazmin and the U.S Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg in Manila on April 28, 2014, during the Aquino Administration.
In a press briefing on Thursday, January 26, Lorenzana disclosed that “Pentagon will start constructing some facilities in the EDCA chosen camps this 2017.”
The facilities will be established in the military camps of Basa Air Base in Clarkfield, Pampanga; Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan; Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija; Lumbia Airfield in Cagayan De Oro and Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu City.
U.S will also set-up runways, facilities for their troops and storage areas for their service equipment.
“But they can leave the building there and leave and they can come back again, that is the idea of EDCA,” Lorenzana explained.
He also clarified that the construction of U.S facilities are not for military use but for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) and there will be no tanks and warfighting equipment to be installed in the sites.
In a separate interview with Brig. Restituto Padilla Jr. he said American authorities will be allowed to store and keep items related to HADR activities such as power generators, lightings, water purifiers, mobility equipment like trucks, heavy lifters, and forklifts.
He said Furthermore, President Duterte okays the construction of U.S facilities in the country, “It’s okay because we need to honor all agreements that were entered into by the previous government.”
This agreement will serve as an operation for training support, military vehicle maintenance and pre-positioning of the supplies in exchange of the pre-modernized Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).