Department
of National Defense (DND) undersecretary and Philippine panel negotiation chair
Pio Lorenzo Batino on Friday announced that they are looking at the possibility
of offering only two Philippine military bases for American use under the
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
"The
direction of the DND and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is to
recommend only the usage of only two military bases, (those) agreed locations
as defined under the EDCA and we believe these number of locations will already
be sufficient to implement the objectives of the EDCA," he said.
"And
number two, the direction of the DND and the AFP when identifying the agreed
locations would be to limit and delineate only a limited portion or a limited
area of the agreed AFP base which would be shared to the US, it will not be the
whole AFP base identified as we need that AFP base," Batino pointed out.
The
DND official also clarified that they will also study the areas that will be
allocated for the EDCA before declaring it for that purpose.
He
declined to comment on how many US soldiers will be deployed to camps as these
are operational matters.
"These
are operational details, (I) can't just talk about troops (as) these are
operational details that differ every year depending on activities approved by
the AFP and the Pacific Command through the Mutual Defense Board and the
Security Board so we cannot (just give) definite numbers of US troops coming in
and out our country," Batino added.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=639950
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