While the expansion of the key military deal promises to strengthen the posture of Philippine and US forces in areas like the West Philippine Sea and Taiwan, both countries now face the steeper task of delivering substance to their commitments.
that American forces will gain wider access to strategic security sites in the Southeast Asian country comes after months of negotiations that picked up steam under a new Marcos administration in Manila.– now paves the way for the largest US military footprint in the Philippines since 1991, when street protests and a vote by Philippine lawmakers terminated an agreement that allowed the US to hold some of its largest overseas bases in the country.
Once implemented, the two allies’ decision to expand their EDCA will see the US military able to access nine local military bases in the country, maintain a rotational presence of troops, train with Filipino soldiers, and preposition defense assets. Officials have yet to announce details on where the new EDCA sites would be located, though analysts believe that additional locations will seek to address, at least in part, China’s aggressive actions in the region, as well as gaps in the Philippine military’s modernization.
Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said coordination with local government units was ongoing as he urged local officials to consider the economic growth EDCA sites would generate. “The biggest concern is going to be the politics. The projects at three of the original five sites were all slowed down by disagreements with other agencies within the Philippine bureaucracy and with local government units,” Poling said. “Making sure that those political issues are settled is going to be key.”Beyond China, analysts said expanding EDCA signaled that Manila and Washington were keen on addressing sentiments shared by both countries that their alliance needs to modernize.
Although viable for the short-term, the fortification of strategic sites in the Philippines by US forces should be matched by a robust effort from defense officials to address the country’s slow modernization program. “A more equal alliance has to be reciprocal. It cannot just be American obligations to the Philippines,” Poling said. This includes sharing risks, he added, as the implementation of EDCA would allow both countries to make good on the Mutual Defense Treaty, which saw both sides commit to defend one another in case of an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Other analysts noted that providing equal attention to these areas would be of interest to the US if it were to avoid reviving images of its colonial legacy which remained most potent in its security presence in the country. For one, Super Typhoon Yolanda had just battered the Philippines in 2013, a year before the deal was signed. At the time, another military deal, the Visiting Forces Agreement, allowed for some 13,000 military personnel, 66 aircraft, and 12 naval vessels to deliver more than 2,500 tons of relief supplies and evacuate over 21,000 people in storm-ravaged areas.
Marcos himself said as much as he declared that his administration would uphold a position where it is “friends to all, enemies to none.”
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