Philippines planning to relocate forces nearer contested waters
Print Edition
The Philippines plans to relocate major air force and navy camps to a former US naval base northwest of Manila to gain faster access to disputed waters in the South China Sea, according to the country’s defense chief and a confidential government report.
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said that as soon as relocation funds are available the government plans to transfer air force and naval forces and their fleets of aircraft and warships to Subic Bay, which has become a busy free port since the 1992 departure of the US Navy.
It’s for the protection of the “West Philippine Sea,” Gazmin said yesterday from South Korea, where he was on a visit, using the name adopted by the Philippine government for the South China Sea.
Subic Bay is a natural deep harbor that can accommodate two large warships acquired recently by the Philippines from the United States, a defense treaty ally, he said, especially compared to shallower harbor at the naval fleet base at Sangley Point in Cavite province, south of Manila.
The first US Coast Guard cutter was relaunched as the Philippines’ largest warship in 2011. President Benigno Aquino III will lead ceremonies on August 6 to welcome the second ship at Subic, the Philippine navy said.
According to a confidential defense department document, Subic’s location will cut reaction time by fighter aircraft to contested South China Sea areas by more than three minutes compared with flying from Clark airfield, also north of Manila, where some air force planes are based.
“It will provide the armed forces of the Philippines strategic location, direct and shorter access to support ÔWest Philippine Sea’ theater of operations,” the document said.
The report said the cost of repairs and improvements for an air force base in Subic would be at least 5.1 billion pesos (US$119 million).
It said that compares with an estimated 11 billion pesos that it would cost to build a new air force base, because the vast Subic complex about 80 kilometers west of Manila already has a world-class runway and aviation facilities. Relocating about 250 air force officers and men to Subic, along with “increased rotational presence of foreign visiting forces” would bolster business and trade at the port, the military document said.
Subic’s international airport has been underutilized since US courier FedEx transferred its lucrative regional hub from Subic to China in 2009, officials said.
The Philippines plans to grant visiting US forces, ships and aircraft temporary access to more of its military camps to allow for a larger number of joint military exercises than are currently staged each year.
The Philippines has backed Washington’s efforts to reassert its military presence in Asia as a counterweight to China’s rise.
Philippine vessels backed off from Huangyan Island in the South China Sea last year after weeks of a tense standoff with a Chinese surveillance ship, a move that gave China effective control over the vast fishing ground off the country’s northwest.
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