The Communist Party of the Philippines strongly condemned the US plan to “sell” the EDCA sites or its military bases in the Philippines to Taiwan. This will be carried out under the guise of Taiwan funding infrastructure developments inside said military bases.

“This plan is a brazen affront on Philippine national sovereignty,” CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said. The US is now selling to Taiwan the extra-territorial rights it assumed under the EDCA. This is a double slap to Filipinos.

Valbuena said this further exposes the real purpose behind the establishment of US military bases in the Philippines. The claim that these are for the country’s defense is very clearly a huge lie.

“These serve as strategic military bases in pursuit of US hegemonic ambitions in the region, against the continuing rise in the economic and military power of its imperialist rival China, packaged as ‘defense of Taiwan’,” the spokesperson said.

At present, US warships and troops are permanently deployed in the Philippines. Just this November, its warship USS Nimitz conducted provocative maneuvers in Scarborough Shoal, the traditional fishing grounds of both Filipino and Chinese fishermen.

“The Filipino people must vigorously oppose this US scheme and hold the Marcos puppet regime accountable for gross violations of Philippine sovereignty,” Valbuena said.

By kowtowing to the US, the Marcos regime is worsening animosity and armed conflicts in the region.

Selling sovereignty

The scheme to “sell the EDCA sites” to Taiwan appeared in the report of the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) made public on November 18. USCC vice chairman Randall Schriver directly admitted in an interview that the EDCA sites are “directly related” to “deterring China.” This is contrary to the repeated denials of US officials and their puppet counterparts in the AFP and the Philippine state.

Schriver said that the funding will be done through Foreign Military Sales to avoid Taiwan’s direct involvement in the military infrastructure in the Philippines. This means Taiwan will pay the US and not the Philippines. The US will use the funds to build better airfields and hangars for warplanes that “will strengthen US capacity near Taiwan.” The process will be managed by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which will then contract an American private contractor.

This arrangement will make the EDCA sites Taiwan’s “non-weaponry support service.” This “investment” reportedly has “logic” for Taiwan because “the EDCA sites are directly related to the US capacity to defend Taiwan.”