Not a single cent of DND 2015 budget allotted for EDCA projects

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 9): Not a single cent of DND 2015 budget allotted for EDCA projects

Department of National Defense(DND) Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Tuesday said not a single centavo of the Php141.85 billion budget of the DND for 2015, is allocated for any Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) projects.

"No part of the (proposed 2015) budget is allocated for any EDCA projects," Gazmin said in Filipino.

As this develops, DND Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino said that the US and the Philippines are yet to start talks on where the proposed EDCA locations.

This is in response to questions raised by Gabriela Rep. Emmy De Jesus on whether the DND knows the exact locations where US troops will be allowed access under the EDCA.

The DND official also said that they are now focusing their resources and attention to the coming Supreme Court deliberations regarding the EDCA.

Batino earlier said that the EDCA, which was signed by the US and Philippines early this year, will boost the capability of the Filipino military in dealing with aggressive expansionist acts in the region.

He added that this new level of cooperation with the US will also enable the government to respond more rapidly in times of natural disasters, which in the past years have posed a serious threat to human safety and security.

The latter also served as chair of the Philippine panel that negotiated the EDCA with the US.

“The Philippines faces serious challenges: To our sovereignty and sovereign rights, developments in the region point to an increasingly aggressive acts; to human safety and security, the frequency and severity of natural disasters point to the need to anticipate, address or mitigate their real impact on people and communities,” the DND official stated.

“In these very fluid times, we – together – are forced to take a long and hard look at what we can do as one government to respond to the challenges before us,” Batino pointed out.

He also pointed out that the agreement will contribute to the capability buildup of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the areas of maritime security, maritime domain awareness, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), while the military and the DND are in the process of modernizing and beefing up the country’s defense capabilities and equipment.

“With prepositioned equipment and materiel, our soldiers will be able to train and develop their capabilities even before the Philippine government acquires such equipment, boosting the speed of our capacity-building efforts for men and women in uniform,” Batino said.

He said buildings and other permanent structures to be constructed for the use of US troops visiting on rotational basis will be automatically owned by the government, and as such, “will greatly hasten the development of Philippine military facilities.”

On prepositioned HADR equipment of the US, Batino pointed out that this will allow the government to respond more rapidly in times of natural disasters and other crises.

Batino, however, assured the Senate Committee on Defense that prior consent of the Philippine government is necessary before any US activity can take place in the agreed location, which will be determined through the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board.

“The EDCA does not authorize the establishment of US bases. It allows the US military access to agreed locations,” he told the committee.

“Given the rapidly evolving geopolitical and climatic realities in the Philippines and beyond, and the conduct of joint training exercises, the EDCA is a natural progression of the alliance between the Philippines and the United States,” Batino explained.

He added that the EDCA is an implementation of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, while the status of American forces is governed by the PH-US Visiting Forces Agreement, a treaty concurred in by the Senate and upheld by the Supreme Court.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=682065