During the last visit of Lloyd Austin, US defense secretary, to the Philippines, he specifically visited Subic Bay Freeport, a former US military base. The former base is not outrightly specified as an “EDCA site” but it is one of the facilities where American ships and troops are stationed and which almost entirely serves US military needs.

Austin specifically visited on July 31 the drydock facility of Subic Drydock Corporation (SDC). SDC’s primary work is to repair US Navy and Military Sealift Command ships, in accordance with its Master Ship Repair Agreement (MSRA) with the US military. SDC is owned by Cabras Marine Corporation (CMC), a private military contractor based in Guam. Attached to the US naval base in Guam, the company also focuses on the repair and servicing of US naval ships there. In 2013, the US Navy awarded it a $77-million contract for its services.

Since January this year, SDC boasts having repaired 30 ships for the US Navy. One of them is the USNS Millinocket which underwent an overhaul in Subic from January 29 to July 31 or for 183 days. It also repaired the ocean surveillance vessel USNS Victorious for 85 days and the USS Manchester for seven days.

While in drydock, US ships’ troops are also stationed at the former military base. The US contracted CMC as early as 2005 to build barges to serve as dormitories, classrooms, mess halls, laundry, storage and work areas for American troops (called Yard, Repair, Berthing, and Messing or YRBM barges). The Philippines has no jurisdiction over the troops while they are stationed in the country’s territorial sea or even on land.

For almost a century, Subic Bay Freeport, then Subic Bay Naval Base, served as one of the largest US naval bases in the Pacific. It played a crucial role in the wars of aggression launched by the US in Vietnam, Korea and even in the Middle East.

The Philippines closed the base after the Senate rejected the US-Philippines Military Bases Agreement on September 16, 1991. Its two drydock facilities became controversial in 1992 because the US refused the request of then president Corazon Aquino to leave the facilities for Filipinos to use. US Navy drydocks were only returned to Subic in 2005, through CMC operations.