By Fr. Shay Cullen, SSC*
The Manila Times-Apr 22
On April 17, 2018, the first US-funded building of a military facility in the Philippines began with a groundbreaking ceremony led by the host country’s Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and the US Ambassador in Manila, Sung Kim. This is being done under an agreement signed in 2014 known as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The first US-funded building is located at Basa Airforce Base in Pampanga.
The EDCA that allows these facilities inside Philippine military bases was made by President Benigno Aquino 3rd, not a treaty approved by the Philippine Senate as demanded by the Constitution but an executive agreement. Several legal authorities question the legality of that executive agreement, given that the approval of foreign bases is the sole prerogative of the Philippine Senate. That may likely be the reason that its implementation has been held in abeyance until this week.
Why President Rodrigo Duterte, a staunch critic of the United States and close friend of US adversary China, has allowed the implementation of this agreement made by the previous President has yet to be seen. The ultimate and real purpose of the new US bases within Philippine bases remains unclear. The primer explaining the EDCA distributed at the time of the signing of the agreement goes to great lengths to stress that the facilities are to enhance the ability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to defend the county from external threats. They are to “promote between the Philippines and its defense treaty ally, the United States, the following:
Interoperability
Capacity-building toward AFP modernization
Strengthening AFP for external defense
Maritime security
Maritime domain awareness
Humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR)
However, the recently announced agreement between President Duterte and President Xi Jinping of China to cooperate and develop the natural resources of the West Philippine Sea claimed by China precludes any US intervention. Even if China has constructed military facilities on several reefs and islands including airstrips, no US assistance has been called for. The UN Arbitration on the Law of the Sea has ruled in favor of the Philippines to the disputed territory.
The stated purpose of the EDCA is in part to ensure “maritime security and maritime domain awareness.” So that has been rendered moot. Again, another stated objective is the “strengthening (of the) AFP for external defense.” Is the AFP facing any external threat, a possible invasion or attack, occupation perhaps? No, there is none. So the implementation of the bases agreement under EDCA must have another purpose, which President Duterte, in his wisdom, has allowed but about which he has remained silent.
The facilities are to enhance training and capacity-building by the AFP, the primer states. But these annual training exercises have continued for the past 25 years without the presence of the US bases. Why so many US bases within bases? Most AFP camps will have US troops and war materiel stored there.
The only single reason for these facilities is to support humanitarian aid in times of disasters. That alone is insufficient to justify massive expenditure on so many facilities when the Philippine Red Cross has stated that supposedly it has expanded its capability to deal with disasters. It is tasked with that duty and claims it can do it without foreign aid in most cases. There are few natural disasters of such magnitude that foreign US aid is required.
The only threat that the Philippines is facing is internal: the New People’s Army (NPA), the threat from ISIS and the recent occupation of Marawi by a rebel group. The need for prepositioned war materiel and US assistance was seen in the subsequent battle and destruction by aerial bombardment with the alleged help of US advisors and surveillance planes. Their involvement is as yet unconfirmed. These would be the only use of prepositioned US troops and war materiel, ammunition and supplies. Such materiel could also be available to support other US war action in Southeast Asia or Afghanistan.
There is no confirmed number of US troops that will be assigned to these US bases within Philippine bases. It is stated they are assigned there but will be on rotation. How long will they stay is unknown.
So, 25 years after the US bases were closed down and the facilities were converted to civilian commercial use and Clark and Subic Naval Base became boom cities boasting hundreds of factories, hotels and malls, the bases are back. They are hiding behind a fig leaf claiming that they are not US bases but within Philippine military bases. It’s just a charade. The US troops stationed there will be likely out and about looking for recreational entertainment with sex and will join the already thriving mob of sex tourists that are abusing our young women and children with impunity.
The fact that the sex industry, with its sex bars and clubs that are fronts for prostitution of women and children, is licensed and given mayors’ permits shows local government complicity. The US bases to be reestablished are complicit, not only in violating the spirit of the Constitution, but also violating our women and children that are victims of human trafficking – yet again.
*www.preda.org
(first published in The Manila Times – http://www.manilatimes.net/us-military-bases-disguised-as-philippine-bases-are-here-again/394051/)