Other countries should not question what we do: Teodoro
LAL-LO, Cagayan- With the Philippine government seeking to build EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) facilities as soon as possible, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said "it is not any other countries' business to question what" they are doing.
"All countries in the world build bases. We do not question the bases being built by other countries except when they are being built on contested territory. This is Philippine territory and it is our business what we do here just as long as it is for Philippine interest, and here the United States converge in our intended use for this and it is not any other countries' business to question what we do here," Teodoro said in an interview with reporters in Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan.
Two EDCA sites have been named in Cagayan. These are in the Lal-lo Airport and Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta. Ana. EDCA sites contain warehouses for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response Operation (HADR).
Teodoro witnessed the HADR operation between the Philippines and the United States.
During the joint HADR operations, the relief goods from the Office of Civil Defense were loaded onto US aircraft at Lal-lo Airport.
US and Philippine forces used United States V-22 Osprey and CH53 Sea Stallions to deliver 10 pallets or 1,300 food packs to Fuga and Calayan Islands.
According to the AFP, the US assets used to transport the relief goods were the aircraft that participated in the Marine Aviation Support Activity in Palawan last month.
In a separate interview, AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. admitted that the military requested the assistance of the United States to transport the relief goods since the AFP does not have enough assets to respond to the needs of the victims of Typhoon ''Egay''.
"Super Typhoon Egay affected many of our citizens and because of the operations nationwide we do not have enough air assets in order for us to be able to address the needs of our people in the northern tip of our country, that is why we asked for the help of our long time allay, the US," he said.
As he stressed the "operational limitations" of the AFP, Toedoro emphasized the need for the Philippines to hasten the development in EDCA sites or the Philippine bases.
"We need to build more facilities to increase our operational tempo so we need to speed up the development of five initial EDCA sites and four more Philippine bases with EDCA sites so we'd like to thank our United States partners for coming into our assistance... I saw for myself the need to speed up the development of these Philippine bases in order to serve a total national security picture of our country and in the other four sites," he said.
"The development (in EDCA) sites is quite slow except for the first five (facilities) so we need to work on the four more because these are the most disaster prone areas actually where the four more EDCA sites are and they are also essential to the integrity of our credible deterrent posture and Philippine territorial security," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
