A lawmaker from Mindanao renewed his call for the establishment of a naval facility in Surigao del Norte to protect the country’s eastern seaboard from smugglers and foreign intruders under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chair of the Lower House’s Quad Committee, made the appeal before Defense Department officials following reports that the latter is considering setting up a naval facility inside the Phividec Industrial Authority (PIA) business complex in Misamis Oriental.
The 3,000-hectare Phividec estate, which houses some 200 existing business locators and spans across Tagoloan and Villanueva towns, is an economic zone registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
Reports said an EDCA site inside the Phividec industrial complex would allow the upcoming naval facility to complement the Lumbia airbase’s logistics function, both for military and civil defense purposes. The Phividec lies about 30 kilometers from the Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro City.
“While I do not question the logic and wisdom behind the plan to put up an EDCA naval site inside the Phividec facility, I think it would be prudent for us not to inter-mix the business complex with a military complex,” Barbers said.
For his part, PIA administrator Donato Bernedo clarified that while they were eager to help prop up the defense capability of the country, they also wanted to harmonize the planned facility with the demands of some 200 existing business locators in the industrial estate.
Recently, PIA signed an agreement for a 25-year extension of the operation of Mindanao International Container Terminal Services Inc. (MICTSI) of the Mindanao Container Terminal, the region’s main international trading platform.
With the contract, MICTSI is set to invest $100 million to expand the port’s berthing capacity to accommodate larger vessels as well as increase the terminal’s capacity to handle more cargoes.
Barbers, also chair of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs said that he and his brother, Surigao del Norte Gov. Lyndon Barbers, have long been offering the province as a possible EDCA naval site to protect the country’s eastern seaboard from foreign intruders allegedly eyeing deuterium and other minerals extraction in the region.
With the recovery by local fishermen of a Chinese military owned underwater drone off the waters in San Pascual, Masbate last Monday, he said it is not farfetched that China has long been conducting in-depth intel gathering inside Philippine waters, possibly including data about deuterium.
Deuterium is widely used in prototype fusion reactors and has their application in military, industrial and scientific fields. In nuclear fusion reactors, it is used as a tracer and it is responsible for slowing down neutrons in heavy water moderated fission reactors.
“With the growing global race to find renewal sources of fuel or energy like deuterium, which reportedly is found abundant in the deep seas in the country’s eastern seaboard, it is not farfetched that China also wanted to get a hand on it,” Barbers said.
The recovered China underwater drone, marked HY-119, refers to a Chinese underwater navigation and communication device that reportedly enables underwater vessels or devices to communicate with surface units or satellites, and transmits and receives data, voice messages and navigation information.
Aside from Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro City, Cesar Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation, Antonio Bautista Air Base and Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base, the four new EDCA sites include: Naval Base Camilo Osias in Santa Ana, Cagayan; Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela; Balabac Island in Palawan; and Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan.
Barbers renews call to put up EDCA site in Surigao del Norte
