Military Base Philippines - His statement came a day after some senators and a provincial governor raised concerns and opposition to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's decision to give the United States access to four more sites, on top of five locations under a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA.
"We are not preparing for war, rather we are aiming to develop our defense capabilities against eventualities and threats to our security," Galvez said in a statement late Thursday. "The geopolitical situation is becoming more precarious by the day," he said.
Military Base Philippines
(Bloomberg) -- A top Philippine defense official said a plan to give the US more access to military bases would boost the Southeast Asian country's defense capabilities against threats to its security as geopolitical tensions simmer.
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The high-level assurance came a day after China's coast guard forcibly seized Chinese rocket debris that Filipino navy personnel found and were towing to a Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea. China, the Philippines and four other governments are locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes in the strategic waterway.
The Philippines last month gave the US access to four more military bases under EDCA, bringing the total to nine. The 2014 pact allows the US to rotate its troops for prolonged stays as well as build and operate facilities on Philippine bases.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was on a two-day visit to Manila this week, warned that the US military presence in the South China Sea would escalate tensions between China and other claimants in the disputed waters.
MANILA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Philippines on Tuesday said defense ally the United States had agreed to spend $66.5 million to start building training and warehouse facilities at three of its military bases, under a 2014 joint security deal.
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After the agreement was signed, the Americans launched construction projects in five Philippine camps and areas, including in the country's south, where U.S. counterterrorism forces have helped train and provide intelligence to their Filipino counterparts for years.
Many of the projects were delayed by legal issues and other problems, Philippine defense officials said. "An armed attack on the Philippines armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke the U.S.
Mutual defense commitments,” Harris told Marcos Jr. "And that is an unwavering commitment that we have to the Philippines." A former American colony, the Philippines used to host one of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland.
The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement. On Tuesday, Harris flies to the western Philippine island province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, to showcase the level of concern America has for keeping the busy waterway open for commerce and navigation and to assure allies like the Philippines.
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MANILA, March 2 (Reuters) - A decision by the Philippines to grant the United States greater access to its military bases was "not for engaging in war" but meant to enhance its ability to defend itself against external threats, its defense chief said on
Thursday. In 2014, the allies signed the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows larger numbers of American forces to stay in rotating batches within Philippine military camps, where they can build warehouses, living quarters, joint training facilities and store combat equipment, except nuclear weapons.
The Philippines could take over those buildings and facilities when the Americans leave. MANILA, Philippines -- The United States is seeking an expansion of its military presence in the Philippines under a 2014 defense pact, U.S.
and Philippine officials said, one of the initiatives Vice President Kamala Harris launched Monday during her visit to America's oldest treaty ally in Asia. A U.S. official told reporters that new areas have been identified to be developed to expand joint security cooperation and training.
He did not provide details, including the type of military facilities, locations and the number of American military personnel to be deployed in those sites, saying the projects would have to be finalized with the Philippines.
A former Philippine military chief had said the United States had asked for access to bases in Isabela, Zambales and Cagayan, all on the island of Luzon, facing north towards Taiwan, and on Palawan in the southwest, near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South
China Sea. Two of the new areas proposed by the Americans were in northern Cagayan province, Bacarro said. Cagayan is across a strait from Taiwan and could serve as a crucial outpost in case tensions worsen between China and the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.
Clark Air Base, formerly Clark Field, formerly U.S. military air base, central Luzon, Philippines. It covered an area of about 12 square miles (30 square km) and was located 48 miles (77 km) north of Manila near the foothills of the Cabusilan Mountains.
The country is shifting its focus towards territorial defense particularly in the South China Sea, Galvez said, amid growing tensions with China. The US and the Philippines have agreed to resume joint patrols in the South China Sea, with Manila last month protesting Beijing's move to aim what it claimed to be a military-grade laser at a Philippine ship.
Harris and her delegation also announced a range of U.S. assistance and initiatives to help the Philippines deal with climate change and looming food and energy crises, including talks on a proposed agreement that would provide the legal basis for U.S.
exports of nuclear equipment and material for energy to the Philippines. Beginning in the 1970s, the United States and the Philippines held negotiations on the conditions for continued U.S. use of Clark Air Base. The eruption in June 1991 of nearby Mount Pinatubo covered the base with volcanic ash, destroying many buildings.
At that point, the negotiations over Clark Air Base became moot, and the U.S. government withdrew, turning over the base to the Philippine government on November 26, 1991. The Philippine government subsequently converted the air base and the surrounding area into a free port and a special economic zone, known as the Clark Freeport Zone.
The industrial and transportation facilities developed there attracted foreign trade and investment, thereby stimulating the economic growth of central Luzon. The base's runways and other facilities were converted for use as an international airport. "Our previous engagements and exercises with our partners used to focus on internal security operations.
Now, we are looking to strengthen our abilities to respond to external threats that may arise along our border-areas," he said. China's increasingly aggressive actions to fortify its claims to most of the busy waterway have alarmed smaller claimant nations.
The U.S. has been helping strengthen the Philippine coast guard, which said it would welcome Harris aboard one of its biggest patrol ships moored in Palawan. Large numbers of American forces stayed in local camps in southern Zamboanga city and outlying provinces at the height of threats posed by Muslim militants, which have eased in recent years.
More than 100 U.S. military personnel currently remain in Zamboanga and three southern provinces, a Philippine military official told The Associated Press.
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