By Darryl John Esguerra
MANILA – United States President Donald Trump underscored the strategic importance of the proposed ammunition manufacturing facility in Subic Bay in Zambales, saying it would boost both Philippine defense capabilities and US military readiness.
“It’s very important. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have approved it,” Trump said early Wednesday (Manila time) during a press conference at the White House after his bilateral meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who is in the US for a three-day official visit.
“We need ammunition. We’re going to end up in a few months, we’ll have more ammunition than any country has ever had… missiles, the speedy ones, the slow ones, the accurate ones — we have everything.”
The proposed joint project, which will be built in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, is part of a broader US-Philippines defense cooperation agenda under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), amid rising tensions in the South China Sea and the wider Indo-Pacific region.
The US House Committee on Appropriations ordered its Department of Defense, State Department, and the International Development Finance Corp. to assess the feasibility of establishing such facility in Subic Bay.
Self-reliant defense
Marcos clarified that the ammunition production initiative is part of the country’s Self-Reliant Defense Posture (SRDP), with US support aimed at helping the Philippines build up its own capacity.
“This is actually (the US) assisting the Philippines in what we call our self-reliance defense program, which is to allow us to be self-reliant and to be able to stand on our own two feet, whatever the circumstances that occur in the future,” Marcos said.
On the issue of potentially hosting more US missile systems, Marcos noted that any military modernization effort is a response to the evolving security environment.
“We would certainly like any kind of military spending — we would wish that it wasn’t necessary, but it is,” he added.
The Subic site, a former US naval base turned commercial hub, has long been considered a strategic location due to its proximity to the West Philippine Sea, a resource-rich area within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone that overlaps with the vast South China Sea, which is being claimed entirely by China. (PNA)
