We are not establishing US bases again -- Palace

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 30): We are not establishing US bases again -- Palace

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda on Wednesday clarified that the Enhanced Development Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) aims to enhance defense capability of both the Philippines and the United States and not to establish the US military bases again in the country.

”We are not establishing bases again in the country. There is no such thing,” Lacierda said in a media briefing.

”Again, the benefit to us is primarily to enhance our defense capability and also to enhance our disaster response and humanitarian assistance mechanism,” he added.

Lacierda said that the EDCA was also for the modernization of the country's military hardware.

”An enhanced feature on this EDCA is the emphasis also on humanitarian assistance on disaster response, which we saw very, very clearly in the aftermath of typhoon ‘Yolanda’,” he added.

Lacierda said the complete copy of the EDCA has been put up on the official gazette of the Office of the President “for everyone to view and to analyze.”

”We defer in the opinion with Senator Joker Arroyo,” Lacierda said, referring to Arroyo’s statement that US President Barack Obama left the country “nothing on our hand.”

Lacierda said the EDCA basically deals with access and use of agreed locations and does not mean the Philippines will be beholden to the US to fulfill the treaty.

”Will we be beholden? No, I don’t think that under this administration. You can never describe this, the Aquino administration, as beholden to the United States,” he clarified.

”What is important for instance is inter-operability and also capacity building and that’s we’re doing,” he added.

National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and US ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg signed on Monday the EDCA few hours before Obama arrived last Monday for the fourth and last leg of his Asian visit.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=639450