While the Filipino people denounce China for having built military facilities in and around the West Philippine Sea, Defense Sec. Lorenzana just acceded to allow the US military to resume constructing its own military facilities within the Philippines INSIDE the camps of the Philippine military.

The decision to allow the US to resume its military facilities construction in the country comes weeks after the Duterte regime also gave the US its assurances of the continuity of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), apparently in exchange for the six million doses of Covid-19 vaccines coursed through the COVAX facilitity as well as deals to sell the country new jet fighters, helicopters, bombs and bullets.

The construction of US military facilities inside camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are being undertaken under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), a one-sided military agreement between the US and the Philippines forged in 2004.

The US military uses these exclusively American facilities to stockpile and forward-deploy weapons, serve as base for communication and surveillance, host American military troops, service US military equipment, and so on. With the VFA, the US also continues to enjoy extraterritorial rights and freely dock their nuclear-capable warships and land their jet fighters and drones whenever they wish.

These facilities are among the starkest evidence of how the country remains a pawn in the US geopolitical game of dominance.

Without bowing to US hegemony, the Philippines can actually welcome political and military cooperation with the US which, for its own imperialist interests, aim to prevent China from further dominating the international trade routes passing through the South China Sea. The Philippines, however, must stand on its own sovereign ground and not surrender any part of its land to be used as a military outpost of the US or any foreign power.