Biden seeks additional $128-M for EDCA sites in Phl—US defense chief

United States President Joe Biden is seeking $128 million in congressional allocation budget to execute projects for Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites in the Philippines

This development was relayed by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday (Washinton time), a day after the latter’s trilateral meeting with Biden and Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.

“All these underscore the strength of our alliances further, and so I look forward to hearing your views on how we can keep working together more closely than ever, including through cooperation with like-minded partners,” Austin said.

The budget allocation is included in the US President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2025 to Congress.

“President Biden’s new pleasant request seeks 128 million dollars to execute 36 projects and enhance defense cooperation agreement size and that would more than double the amount that we’ve invested in EDCA infrastructure,” Austin said.

In a fact sheet released by the White House on Saturday, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will launch a new initiative in the coming year, which will preposition humanitarian relief commodities at an EDCA site.

“Prepositioning of commodities, combined with strengthened Philippines’ humanitarian assistance and disaster response capacity, including for EDCA-hosting communities, will contribute to greater crisis resilience and more effective crisis response,” the fact sheet further read.

Austin said both the Philippines and the US have invested significant time and resources to address shared security challenges.

He added that Biden “promised to keep building” the Philippines-US partnership.

Also, Austin reiterated Biden’s assurance on the US commitment to the defense of the Philippines, which he described as ironclad.

He stressed anew that “an armed attack on the Philippine Armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific, including South China Sea will invoke US defense commitments to the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).”

The EDCA project is one of the instruments signed between the Philippines and the US in 2014, aimed at deepening their defense cooperation and advancing the implementation of the MDT.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has allocated $109 million toward infrastructure projects at EDCA sites since 2014.

This budget includes the $59 million for the airfield improvement of the country’s Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga.

Marcos said his visitation at the Pentagon has once again reaffirmed “the strength of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines in the face of all the threats and challenges that we have had to face together.”

“The Philippines is always able to look to the United States for support and we hope that this trilateral agreement, which we formalized yesterday will be a formalization of an added multilateral support and structure that will make the safety, the peace and the stability of the South China a reality and continued to be a reality,” he added.