‘New Edca sites not for US combat activities’

FILE PHOTO: President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. Photo by RAY ZAMBRANO

WASHINGTON—The United States “never” asked the Philippines to allow American forces to use the locations covered by their military agreement as forward bases should a shooting war erupt in the Taiwan Strait, President Marcos said on Thursday (Friday in Manila).

Addressing a policy forum on the last day of his working visit here, the President disclosed that he personally assured Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang that the new areas under the US-Philippines’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) were not intended for combat activities.

Qin went to see Marcos in Malacañang two weeks ago after Manila and Washington agreed on the additional Edca sites.

The President said the four new sites, three of which were facing Taiwan in northern Luzon, were actually meant for disaster response, departing from his previous statement that these would be utilized for the “defense of our territory.”

“To be fair, the United States has never brought up the possibility that [it] will use the Edca sites as staging area[s] for any offensive action against any country,” the Chief Executive said at the forum of the Center for International and Strategic Studies here.

“And I think we are in lockstep with the US with that and that they understand the concerns that the Philippines has and are sensitive to the reasons why we have those concerns,” he said.

Mr. Marcos said he had also “made it clear” to Washington that the Edca locations were primarily intended for the equipment that the United States may use in relief operations during calamities and other noncombat activities.

The President, however, admitted that the current military tension between the United States and China over the latter’s move to take over Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that Beijing is claiming to be their own, had ultimately made the security and defense issues “part of that mission.”

This was the reason why China had become “terribly critical” of Edca, he pointed out.

“Should there be such an attempt to use the Edca sites for offensive action, then that would be outside the parameters of what we had discussed and what the Edca sites are in fact for,” he said.

In concluding his five-day working visit here, the President said the Philippines and its longtime military ally had returned to “our normal road of partnership, working together hand in hand.”

He said he had “frank and open discussions” with US President Joe Biden during their bilateral talks at the White House on May 1.

—With a report from Reuters

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