Manila, March 3. Philippine Defense Minister Carlito Galvez has justified that US access to its military bases, included in the expansion of the defense agreement between the two countries, “does not prepare them for war” and only has a “deterrent” approach.
“Our projects with the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Pact (EDCA) are not designed for war, but to develop our defensive capabilities ahead of possible contingencies and threats to our security,” Galvez explained in a statement released Thursday. evening.
The justification comes a day after several Philippine senators and governors opposed the decision to grant the US military access to four new military bases in the archipelago, which Manila and Washington ratified on February 2, in more than the five already agreed at the signing of the EDCA. in 2014.
At least two of the new bases are believed to be located in northern Luzon, the country’s northernmost provinces and within 300 kilometers of Taiwan, which could involve the Philippines if a conflict erupts between the United States and China after a possible invasion of the self-governing island, which it considers an inalienable part of its territory.
During a session in the Philippine Senate, the governor of Cagayan – one of the northern provinces which would welcome troops from Washington in its military base -, Manuel Mamba, asked Galvez not to allow the United States “to designate China as our enemy.
“Let them fight their own war,” he added.
However, the Philippine Minister of Defense slipped that military cooperation with Washington is also aimed at deterring Beijing in the South China Sea, after the continuous incursions of Chinese ships in Philippine territorial waters and the construction of artificial islands on reefs and atolls within 200 miles of the Philippine coast.
One of the military bases that can accommodate American troops and warships is Subic, in the northwest of the Philippines and which was until 1992 the largest American naval base on foreign land, whose return would be responsible for a great political symbolism in the archipelago.
In statements to EFE, a local government official from Subic admitted that senior US defense officials had visited the former naval base – now occupied by the Philippine military – in recent weeks.