Despite its mandate to convert and develop into civilian and commercial use in what used to be a US naval base here, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is ready and willing to coexist with a military base that the government is set to establish in this free port.
SBMA Chairman Roberto V. Garcia said in a media interview here on Monday that he sees no problem for a mixed civilian and military use of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
“We’re a government agency, and for reasons of national security we have to cooperate with the national government,” Garcia said.
He added the return of Subic as a military base is understandable “because Subic simply offers the best defense position” for the Philippines and its allies in view of Chinese aggression on the West Philippine Sea.
The Philippine government announced last week that it would re-open Subic Bay as a military base to allow quicker response to Chinese movements in disputed waters.
Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino said the government would station fighter planes and frigates in Subic as part of a defensive posture.
Garcia confirmed the plan on Monday, saying that under a memorandum of agreement signed last year with the Department of National Defense (DND), the SBMA has set aside 13 hectares for the proposed Philippine military base in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
This will be in the Cubi Point area, that is at the southwest apron of the Subic Bay International Airport, an area that used to be the air terminal of the courier giant Federal Express before it relocated to China.
Garcia said it would take at least six months for the government to refurbish the facilities, considering the sad state the terminal has fallen into after FedEx’s departure in 2009.
“As I understand it, the proposed base will be what they call in military parlance a ‘forward operating base’ because it is near a potential source of conflict. But mainly it will be a training base,” Garcia said.
He added that the use by American forces of the proposed Philippine base would not violate the Constitution because the visiting foreign troops that may be hosted in the base would be here only on a rotational basis.
He also said that Philippine allies like Japan and Australia, which are also seeking to sign a visiting forces agreement similar to the existing pact with the US, might also be hosted in the proposed Subic base.
Aside from the air base at the Cubi Point, the Armed Forces will also use the Alava, Bravo and Boton wharves here for the naval assets, Garcia said. As of now, Subic is already the home port of the country’s two frigates that were acquired from the US last year.
Garcia clarified, however, that the SBMA-DND agreement would only be implementable once the Supreme Court gives the green light to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which provides for greater access by foreign allies of Philippine military bases.
On the economic side, Garcia said the SBMA will not be generating any income from hosting a Philippine base. “But local companies that can provide services to the military, as well as the local hotels and restaurants, would surely benefit from Subic’s hosting of a base,” he added.
Garcia added that under the agreement with the DND, the military would have priority in using facilities here only in case of national emergency.
“So I think, this would not prejudice the interest of our business locators in the free port,” Garcia said.
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