Philippines offers U.S 8 bases to host weapons
By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
At last the Supreme Court just decided on the urgently needed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). I've been interviewing incessantly Senators like Grace Poe, TJ Guingona, Peter Cayetano, Bong Bong Marcos, others by posing to them we need EDCA like crazy at the height of the encroachment of China on our islets and reefs at the Spratlys and the threats she has on us and our honor.
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| CHINESE HEADACHE. Hundreds of American made Lockheed Martin F-16 Super Falcon jets. The U.S military superiority in air and water would be a big problem with China especially many of these assets would be located at Palawan Islands of the Philippines for immediate action against the Chinese armed forces in the Spratly Islets and Scarborough Shoals that they encroached from the Philippines in the past years. |
The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s headline today said: PH offers 8 bases to U.S: Facilities include Clark, Basa, Lumbia, Magsaysay”.
Col. Restituto Padilla, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines,
said the facilities offered to the Americans were Basa Air Base in Pampanga province, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province, Camp Antonio Bautista and a naval base in Palawan province, Camp Benito Ebuen and the naval base in Cebu province, Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Lumbia air field in Cagayan de Oro.
Col. Restituto Padilla, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines,
said the facilities offered to the Americans were Basa Air Base in Pampanga province, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province, Camp Antonio Bautista and a naval base in Palawan province, Camp Benito Ebuen and the naval base in Cebu province, Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Lumbia air field in Cagayan de Oro.
Son of a gun, these bases where American Lockheed Martin F-35 Stealth multiple role jets they called also as Lightning II would be launched and would be a game changer (click text and video here) in case those chink eyed interlopers, whose economy now is in a tailspin, started to fire their surface – air- missiles (SAM) at those American Lockheed Martin F-16 Super Falcon jets and FA-18 Super Hornet jets or the “spy jet” two jet engines’ P-8 Poseidon or the Philippine Air Force mini version of a multiple jet trainers cum fighter-bomber-reconnaissance F/A-50 Golden Eagle (we just bought from South Korea) making fly-by at the disputed Spratly islets where lately two huge commercial jets of the Chinese had just landed.
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A news article I read says: “The Philippines lags behind its neighbours in total international tourism receipts, according to the 2014 Annual Report of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Despite a new high of 4.8 million international tourist arrivals, the country still trailed Malaysia (27.4 million tourist arrivals), Singapore (11.8 million), Indonesia (9.4 million) and Vietnam (7.9 million)”.
My comment:
The problems in the Philippines, investors for hotels and other tourism related infrastructures like airport, etc are confined to 60% Filipino ownership because the Constitution provides for that xenophobic 60-40 percent arrangement at the expense of the foreigners. That law discourages these deep pocketed foreign investors because they are relegated to 40 percent minority control in corporate boards in the country. These capitalists, who were responsible for the economic leap of Mainland China, Vietnam, Thailand, others are hesitant to pour their monies to develop our tourism industry and lessen the prices or better off the standard of our hotels and airports where they can be constructed on BOT (Build Operate & Transfer) or PPP (Public Private Partnership) basis.
