Marcos: No US request for Philippine troops to aid if war breaks out in Taiwan
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday in Washington that the US has not asked for Philippine troops to help if a war breaks out between the US and China over Taiwan.
“No, the United States has never said that this is a possibility and we have also made it clear from our end that this is not the purpose of those sites and this is not the way that they will be used,” Marcos said at a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The president was referring to the additional four locations in the Philippines where US troops will have access under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
These sites are Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta. Ana, Cagayan, Lal-lo Airport in Lal-lo, Cagayan, Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela, and Balabac Island in Palawan.
China has repeatedly warned that the establishment of these sites, located in the northern and western parts of the Philippines, may endanger peace in the region, even as Philippine officials have sought to allay these concerns.
Speaking in Washington, Marcos said the EDCA sites were established, first and foremost, to respond to natural disasters.
“The EDCA sites were conceptualized, really, to be these places that we could use so as to be able to provide quicker relief, quicker rescue, do a better job, in other words, of rehabilitating and reconstructing the damage that will be caused by these disasters,” he said.
But Marcos admitted that the military, security and defense aspects of the EDCA sites have recently come to the fore with the increasing tensions over Taiwan.
Still, he assured that these bases are not meant “to attack, to move against anyone, any country, not China, not any country.”
“Should there be such an attempt to use the EDCA sites for offensive action, then that would be outside the parameters of what we had discussed and what the EDCA sites are in fact for,” he said.
He continued, “But to be fair, the United States has never brought up the possibility that the United States will use as staging areas for any offensive action against any country.”
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