Barbers bats for EDCA site in Surigao del Norte

Surigao del Norte lawmaker Robert Ace Barbers on Tuesday called for the creation of an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) site in his home province, saying such a measure is in line with protecting the country against aggression and the entry of criminal syndicates.

Barbers was referring to the pact between the Philippines and the United States which grants US military personnel and their equipment access to Philippine military facilities for the enhancement of their individual and collective defense capabilities. This includes the prepositioning of materiel as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief  supplies.

“The country’s eastern seaboard, which includes the Philippine Rise (formerly the Benham Rise), lacks enough security and protection and has been subject to China and other foreign intrusions, and often becoming a passageway of ships smuggling drugs into the country. Surigao del Norte is facing the eastern seaboard and there is an urgent need to secure and protect the area from drug smugglers or foreign intruders which is facing the vast Pacific Ocean,” Barbers said.

“It is for this reason that myself and my brother and Surigao del Norte governor Lyndon Barbers invited Filipino and American military officials to check our province as a possible EDCA site where the US military can build facilities and preposition supplies and other equipment,” Barbers said.

Surigao del Norte, the lawmaker said, has a distinct advantage as it is openly facing the Pacific Ocean and has an outlet to the West Philippine Sea.

“The ships can traverse the country from east to west and vice versa without needing to circle around,” Barbers added.

The congressman said his suggestion is a feasible one, given that the Armed Forces of the Philippines already has a naval detachment in Casiguran, Aurora province for the protection of the country’s eastern seaboard and is part of the country’s Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept.

There are at currently nine EDCA sites in the Philippines: