Lumbia Use by US Military: Oca Okays With It, How About You?

18 Jan Lumbia Use by US Military: Oca Okays With It, How About You?

After commercial flights from Lumbia airport were transferred to Laguindingan airport in Misamis Oriental, Lumbia airport is now being used by the Air Force and is considered as one of the areas for American use under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement including those in Nueva Ecija, Clark, Palawan, Cebu and among others.

This idea is being okayed by Mayor Oscar Moreno, that Lumbia airport will be of use by US as a place for building facilities to store military equipments and supplies, station troops, civilian personnel and defense contractors, station and transit vehicles, aircrafts and vessels in 10 years period basing on a security agreement confirmed by the Supreme Court. He sees no problem with it and that the city could even benefit from it.

But still, the plan of the city expansion towards Lumbia area is being worked about seeing that Lumbia is a potential “Fort Bonifacio” wanna-be in the future. This plan is said to be based on the Achieving Sustainable Urban Development program created with UN Habitat’s help, turning the village into a commercial area. This possibility is being eyed to happen with or without US facilities being built in the area.

Supreme Court supported the legality of Edca allowing the espansion of US presence in the country through local military access, which was decided because of China’s aggressive stance over contested waters in the West Philippine Sea (also being claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam).

President Aquino explained the logic behind Edca saying that it is for interoperability, and that this agreement is an enhancement of both countries’ abilities.

“To my mind, Edca has a very practical purpose for developing our own Armed Forces: All the modern hardware carries a significant price tag; yet with Edca, we have a chance to try the cutting-edge equipment and see just how suitable they are to our needs, without having to buy them first”, President Aquino added.

Finally, he said, “If we get to train with the US, a far more advanced force, we can learn from them the strengths and shortcomings in using such equipment, and we can even redefine and understand such under our own parameters. On the reverse side, the US gets to learn how to make do with fewer resources, which in a conflict situation is always a high probability if not an intense possibility.”