Re: Philippines news and discussion thread
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:52 pm
Security Risks of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement Under The Marcos Jr. Administration
by Rommel C. Banlaoi
November 21, 2022
Introduction:
by Rommel C. Banlaoi
November 21, 2022
Introduction:
Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/21112022 ... analysis/(Eurasia Review) American Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Manila from her trip to Thailand after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. Harris is scheduled to visit on Tuesday, November 22, the City of Puerto Princesa, Palawan where a US facility under Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is built facing the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Earlier, Defense Department (DND) Officer-in-Charge Jose Faustino Jr. has announced the construction of five additional American military facilities in Philippine bases across Luzon to boost the implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). Locations of these new facilities have been identified: two in Cagayan and one each in Isabela, Palawan, and Zambales. The original five facilities built and being further developed are in Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan, Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Lumbia Airpot in Cagayan de Oro, and Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan, Cebu.
US Ambassador to the Philippines, Mary Kay Carlson, also disclosed the plan of Washington, DC to provide Manila $70 million worth of military assistance to the Philippines in the next two years to implement EDCA under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
Though Faustino has strongly stressed that EDCA sites are primarily earmarked for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response facilities, training facilities, warehouses and operation centers, these areas are some of the country’s top strategic locations that can effectively facilitate US military activities in major flash points of armed conflicts in Asia, particularly in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Straits and the Korean Peninsula.
Building American military facilities in Philippine territories amid worsening geopolitical rivalry between the US and China also raises the risks of the Philippines getting inevitably involved in the event of military conflicts between these two competing major powers.