Mutual Defense Board to discuss sites for US structures

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino and American officials comprising the Mutual Defense Board (MDB) will discuss in October the sites of American military facilities to be built under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

Speaking to reporters in Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, Armed Forces chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista said the selection of sites for the US structures will be discussed when the next MDB meeting is held in October.

“There is a process to determine what bases will be offered and there is also an approval process,” he said. “That will be discussed by the MDB.”

Bautista is co-chairman of the board with the commander of the US Pacific Command.

It allows the Philippines and the US to consult each other on common military concerns.

Bautista said nothing is definite yet until the MDB meets.

“I cannot say that there will be a list (of agreed sites) already by October,” he said.

EDCA allows US forces greater access to Philippine military installations.

Its implementing details, including the sites to host US facilities, will be contained in annexes that the Philippine and US negotiating panels will draft.

Officials have vowed to complete the annexes as soon as possible.

It’s not for him to decide which bases will be opened to US troops, Bautista said.

US Marines in Palawan

US Marines will be stationed along with Filipino troops in Balabac, Palawan under the EDCA.

“There is an ongoing discussion among the parties involved on this particular deployment in Balabac,” a source said.

The source said the US proposed the deployment on rotation basis of 50 to 60 US Marines in a command post in Balabac in 2012, ahead of the launching of the annual Philippine-US Amphibious Landing Exercises (PHIBLEX) in Palawan.

“This proposal is now being revived,” the source said.

However, the source is not sure if the US deployment plan in Balabac also includes previous proposals for the conversion into a joint Philippines-US operational command of a 246-hectare Philippine Marine reservation at Samariniana in Brooke’s Point in the south of Palawan.

Facing the West Philippine Sea, Balabac is an island town close to Sabah at the southern tip of Palawan.

It is around 190 nautical miles from Mabini (Johnson South) Reef, one of the islets in the West Philippine Sea well within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and presently under Chinese occupation.

Recent territorial monitoring of the Palawan-based Armed Forces Western Command (Wescom) over Mabini Reef showed that China is reclaiming land to build a naval base with an airfield on the adjacent south and north reefs.

An airfield that can only accommodate light planes is located inside the military reservation in Samariniana.

Before, the US was eyeing to extend the runway to accommodate bigger military transport planes.

EDCA states that US troops deployed on a rotation basis must put up their own facilities on “agreed areas” inside Philippine military camps.

The US is also looking forward to joint operational commands in other parts of Palawan, including Oyster Bay and Ulugan Bay at Barangay Macarascas, Puerto Princesa City, Tarumpito Point in Rizal and San Vicente towns.

All these areas are facing the West Philippines Sea.

Wescom’s Naval Forces West (Navforwest) is now gradually moving to newly established headquarters at Ulugan Bay to immediately send out vessels for territorial patrol to guard and protect the country’s sovereignty. – Alexis Romero, Jaime Laude