Four new military bases to be used by United States forces deployed to the Philippines will be in scattered locations around the country, including in a province facing the flashpoint South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has said.
The Marcos administration announced last month that it would allow rotating batches of US forces to indefinitely stay in four new Philippine military camps in addition to five local bases earlier designated under a 2014 Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
According to Al Jazeera, locations for the new bases will include areas in the northern Philippines, a move that is likely to infuriate China as it would provide US forces with a well-situated staging ground close to southern China and Taiwan.
Marcos said the particular locations would be announced soon, adding that the sites would boost the country’s ability to defend the “eastern side” of its largest island, Luzon – which is the closest main Philippine island to Taiwan.
