Duterte tells US not to build military depots in Philippines

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has accused the United States of building ‘depots’ in the Philippines to store live ammunition, warning that he would abrogate a bilateral treaty if Washington is indeed building permanent structures on Philippine soil,China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

“Here is my worry. They ( The Americans) are making depots, they are unloading arms in the Philippines now, in Palawan, Cagayan de Oro and Pampanga,” he told a news conference in the presidential palace after midnight Sunday.

“I am serving notice to the Armed Forces of the US: Do not do it. I will not allow it,” Duterte said, citing a provision in the Visiting Forces Agreement signed by both countries that no permanent facilities should be built on the Philippine territory.

He said “a depot by any other name is a depot ... It is prohibited under the law. It’s not allowed by the treaty,” he said.

Duterte said building a depot and stoking them with live ammunition is dangerous to the Philippines and its people, describing it as a magnet for attack.

“I won’t allow that. You place us all in danger,” he said, vowing to stop the construction.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said last week that the US military will start building facilities in Philippine military camps this year.

Lorenzana told reporters that the plan is part of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement ( EDCA) that Washington and Manila signed in 2014.

Aside from the Basa Air Base in Pampanga province near Subic and Clark, the former US military bases that were converted into economic zones, the US armed forces also plan to build facilities in Antonio Bautista Air Base located in Palawan, the Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province on Luzon island, Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro province in the southern Philippines, and Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu in central Philippines.

The Philippine constitution bars the presence of foreign military bases, troops, or facilitates on Philippine soil.

However, Duterte said the US troops can still conduct joint military exercises with Philippines troops. — Bernama