US Has No Desire to Open a New Military Bases in the Philippines

One of the world’s most powerful country, the United States of America has no desire of opening a new military bases in the Philippines as what they were used to from the year 1899–1942, 1945–1992 as revealed by US Ambassador Philip Goldberg.

US Bases

An aerial view of Naval Base Subic Bay, 1981 (Photo: Wikipedia)

During an exclusive interview with radio dzMM, the US Ambassador stressed that the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the two countries will only allow US forces to have access to existing Philippine military facilities.

That the US, through EDCA, will open new bases in the Philippines is only a “misconception,” Goldberg said.

“No, we are not opening new bases in the Philippines. The Philippines wouldn’t invite us to do so and we don’t desire to do so… It’s not the case. What is the case is that we will have rotational forces here, some number of them to be decided mutually, decided in agreement between the two sides — where they should be, who they should be, all of those things,” he said.

“What it does allow us to do is to have a greater presence to work more closely with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). It is the goal of the Philippine government and the Philippine people to build a minimum credible defense, and so the Philippines is accessing help from traditional allies like the United States and also from strategic partners like Japan and Australia,” he added.

According to the US Ambassador’s statement the US is very pleased with the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) declaring the EDCA constitutional.

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