WORLD

Marcos defends US military presence, which China opposes

Mar 21, 2023, 11:06 PM

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., right, shakes hands with Philippine Army Commanding Gene...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., right, shakes hands with Philippine Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. during rites at the 126th founding anniversary of the Philippine Army at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, Philippines on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday defended his decision to allow a larger United States military presence in the country as vital to territorial defense despite China’s fierce opposition and warning that it would “drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife.”

The Marcos administration announced in early February that it would allow rotating batches of American forces to indefinitely stay in four more Philippine military camps in addition to five local bases earlier designated under a 2014 defense pact of the longtime treaty allies.

Marcos said without elaborating that the four new sites would be announced soon and they include areas in the northern Philippines. That location has infuriated Chinese officials because it would provide U.S. forces a staging ground close to southern China and Taiwan.

The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan. America’s moves dovetail with Philippine efforts to shore up its territorial defense amid a long-seething dispute mainly with China in the South China Sea.

Aside from the northern and southern Philippines, Marcos told a news conference without elaborating that, under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, U.S. forces would also be allowed to stay in western Palawan province, which faces the South China Sea. He underscored that the moves were meant to boost the country’s coastal defense and added in reply to a question that opposition to the U.S. military presence by some local Filipino officials had been overcome.

“We explained to them why it was important that we have that and why it will actually be good for their province,” Marcos said, adding most of those who had objections had come around “to support the idea of an EDCA site in their province.”

Governor Manuel Mamba of northern Cagayan province, where American forces may be allowed to stay with their weapons in up to two Philippine military camps, said Marcos has the prerogative to make the decision but he remained opposed to it. He had earlier expressed fears that allowing the Americans to base in Cagayan, which lies across a sea border from Southern China, Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait, could turn his province into a key target of the Chinese military if a conflict involving the U.S. military breaks out over Taiwan.

“It is the president’s call, not mine,” Mamba told The Associated Press. “But I maintain my stand against any foreign forces stationed in my province. Still, I am against EDCA sites in my province.”

U.S. and Philippine officials have said that American-funded construction of barracks, warehouses and other structures to be used by U.S. forces and contractors would generate much-needed local jobs and boost the economy. The U.S. presence would help the Philippines respond to natural disasters, enhance combat-readiness and help deter Chinese aggression in Asia.

China, however, has repeatedly accused Washington of taking steps to contain it militarily and of driving a wedge between Beijing its Asian neighbors like the Philippines.

“Creating economic opportunities and jobs through military cooperation is tantamount to quenching thirst with poison and gouging flesh to heal wounds,” the Chinese embassy in Manila said in a recent statement. “Such cooperation will seriously endanger regional peace and stability and drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife and damage its economic development at the end of the day.”

U.S. forces have intensified and broadened joint training, focusing on combat readiness and disaster response with Filipino troops on the nation’s western coast, which faces the South China Sea, and in its northern Luzon region across the sea from the Taiwan Strait.

Next month, the allied forces are to hold one of their largest combat exercises, called Balikatan — Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder — which will include live-fire drills. One planned maneuver involves U.S. and Philippine forces firing rockets to sink a mock enemy ship in waters facing the South China Sea, the Philippine military said.

If the ship-sinking exercise proceeds as planned, it would likely draw an angry reaction from China, which claims the strategic waterway virtually in its entirety and has turned seven disputed reefs into missile-guided island bases to defend its territorial claims.

World

Associated Press

Burned bodies of Easter pilgrims still lie inside a bus that crashed off a bridge in South Africa

MMAMATLAKALA, South Africa (AP) — Emergency workers in South Africa were searching Friday for the bodies of victims after a bus carrying pilgrims to an Easter gathering plunged off a bridge and caught fire. An 8-year-old child was the only survivor of the crash that killed at least 45. Hours after the Thursday afternoon crash, […]

35 minutes ago

Associated Press

Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher after another set of Wall St records

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares ended mostly higher in quiet, Good Friday holiday trading, while European and U.S. markets were closed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.5% to 40,369.44 and the Kospi in Seoul was little changed, at 2,748.55. The Shanghai Composite index gained 1% to 3,041.17. Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 0.7%. In Bangkok, the SET added […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher after another set of Wall St records

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Friday in quiet holiday trading, with markets closed in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and India, among other places. Many financial markets are closed on Friday for Good Friday. In India, markets were closed for the Holi holiday. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 40,316.56 and the Kospi […]

1 day ago

Associated Press

U.S. congressional delegation pledges continued defense support for Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation pledged continued support for Taiwan on Thursday, days after Congress approved $300 million in military aid for the self-governed island that’s claimed by China. Congress also approved $400 million on Saturday to counter the Chinese government’s influence in the region, as part of its Defense Appropriations […]

1 day ago

Associated Press

Greek police clash with demonstrators protesting a concert by US military cadets

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Police in Greece clashed late Wednesday with Communist-backed demonstrators who tried to prevent a concert by U.S. military cadets. The violent protest occurred in the central Greek city of Larissa ahead of a concert by members of the West Point Glee Club, a musical group of the U.S. Military Academy which […]

2 days ago

Associated Press

Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill 16, militant rockets kill 1 Israeli as cross-border violence soars

HEBBARIYE, Lebanon (AP) — A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by the militant group Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, concerns […]

2 days ago

Marcos defends US military presence, which China opposes