PHILIPPINE legislators are questioning the location of the additional EDCA sites in the Philippines and one senator stressed that these cannot be used as a launching pad.
This is what legislators noticed according to Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
In an interview on SMNI’s ‘Pulso ng Bayan’, Sen. Gatchalian insisted that the locations where the additional EDCA sites will be constructed are not insurgency prone nor are they included in the typhoon belt unlike Region 5 and Region 8.
“The committee is looking into the choice of locations because we can see that two are in Cagayan Province and the two chosen locations are in areas we know there’s little insurgency problem or that there is no separatist problem there. We don’t have problems of separation there that’s why there is a big question amongst our senators. One of EDCA’s objectives in the agreement is the humanitarian aspect or the disaster response, and that’s where Senator Imee and I have questions – she is the chairwoman in our Foreign Affairs Committee. We saw that in places like Region 5 and Region 8 in the Eastern seaboard that is a frequent path of storms, there is no presence of EDCA nor our military nor theirs have there, and there is no plan to establish prepositioned equipments there, so that is where we are doubtful. Why is it that in the places that are frequently hit by storms, these are the ones that have no prepositioned equipments,” said Sen. Gatchalian.
Because one of the objectives when it comes to the construction of EDCA sites is to strengthen the capacity of the Armed Forces of the Philippines when it comes to defense as well as security and disaster response.
Gatchalian added the basis of the location of these EDCA sites must also be clear.
Sites cannot be used as a launching pad—Sen. Gatchalian
Gatchalian reminded the Philippines should not be the launching pad of the United States.
“What is our criteria? We have an objective but what is our criteria? For example, the equipments must be able to respond to a disaster in less than 10 minutes or less than 30 minutes. Let’s look into these criteria’s because like what’s being shown in the slide now, we can see there’s none in Region 5 and Region 8. That’s our traditional typhoon belt and we even have bases there like in G1, there’s an airstrip there so our point is to clarify the criteria so that it doesn’t enter into the minds of our compatriots that there will be more bases in places near Taiwan or near America’s military activities. I repeat, the EDCA sites cannot be used as a staging area, a launching pad or a warehouse for the military activity of the Americans as it’s not stated in the EDCA,” added Sen. Gatchalian.
