Creation of EDCA site at Philippine Rise proposed

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s eastern seaboard where the mineral-rich Philippine Rise is located should also be protected from potential intruders, just like the West Philippine Sea where China has been making repeated incursions, a senior lawmaker said yesterday.

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of the second district of Surigao del Norte proposed the establishment of a naval facility in the province under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States to protect the Philippine Rise.

Barbers commended Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro for the establishment of a naval detachment in Aurora to “protect the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the Philippine Rise.”

The naval detachment in Aurora was part of the country’s Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept.

Barbers said the country’s eastern seaboard “lacks enough security and protection and has been subject to China and other foreign intrusions, often becoming a passageway of ships smuggling drugs into the Philippines.”

“The move to build a naval detachment in Casiguran, Aurora plays a vital role in protecting and guarding the country’s eastern seaboard,” he said.

Barbers, who chairs the House committee on dangerous drugs, said there is urgent need to secure Surigao del Norte, which is facing the Pacific Ocean, from drug smugglers and foreign intruders.

Barbers said this is the reason he and his governor-brother, Lyndon, invited Filipino and American military officials to “check Surigao del Norte as a possible EDCA site where the US military can build facilities and preposition supplies, equipment and materiel.”

“Surigao del Norte has a distinct advantage as it is openly facing the Pacific Ocean and has an outlet to the West Philippine Sea. The ships can traverse the country from east to west and vice versa without needing to circle around,” Barbers said.