Fishers’ group rejects US ammo factory in Subic Bay

PREPOSITIONING Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) officials and US Marine Corps Col. Luke Watson, commanding officer of Blount Island Command based in Jacksonville, Florida, formally open a warehouse at Naval Supply Depot Compound in Subic Bay Freeport in this photo taken on Feb. 4. The 5,300-square-meter area will be used for Marine Corps prepositioning programs on humanitarian aid and disaster relief equipment for the Indo-Pacific region. —Photo courtesy of SBMA

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines — The fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Monday “strongly rejected” the proposal in the US Congress to establish an ammunition production and storage facility in this former American naval base.

In an interview, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap urged the public, as well as the legislators, to reject the military installation that will “make us a target of US rival countries that posed potential threat to the national security and to the livelihood of fisherfolk.”

READ: US Congress eyes setup of ammo factory, depot at Subic

“We have already removed US military bases from our soil; we are concerned that their renewed presence is aimed at using the Philippines as a strategic location for provocative actions against China,” Hicap said.

He added, “We don’t want to be caught in the middle of a war between the US and its rivals, especially since we know that it will also cause great harm to the country’s fisheries.

Hicap explained the fishing community would be threatened “because of the toxic chemical wastes that the ammo and arms factory will discharge into the water.”

The US Marine Corps opened a warehouse facility in February at a Naval Supply Depot inside this freeport to store and enable to preposition their humanitarian aid and disaster relief for their Indo-Pacific region operations.

During that time, the US Marine Corps Col. Luke Watson, a commanding officer of Blount Island Command based in Jacksonville, Florida, also met Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Eduardo Jose Aliño to discuss port operations, focusing on efficiencies needed for a sustainable logistics node.

‘Strategic’

Aliño expressed his full support for the ingress of the equipment to the freeport, saying that it is one of the “most strategic areas” to deploy aid to other areas around the Indo-Pacific Region, “as the area has become the logistics hub for maritime and aviation industry in the country.”

According to Watson, it is one of their ashore sites as part of the Marine Corps’ global prepositioning network, but “there will be no ammunition, just motor transportation, communication, and engineering.”

But recently, US lawmakers have been proposing the establishment of a joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility here.

This move aims to address the lack of forward-staged ammunition manufacturing in the Indo-Pacific region amid rising tensions in the South China Sea between China, the Philippines, and the US.

Subic Bay was the site of the US’ largest overseas naval facility until Washington withdrew from its military bases in the Philippines in 1991.

Since then, both Philippine and American military forces have been utilizing the 262-square-mile area to facilitate resupply, refueling, and repair of vessels.

Subic’s port facilities also support the delivery of US military equipment into the Philippines during bilateral exercises.

In a June 16 report, the US House committee on appropriations said it was “concerned with the lack of a forward-staged ammunition manufacturing facility in the Indo-Pacific.”

The committee ordered the US Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the International Development Finance Corp. to study the feasibility of establishing a “joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility” at the former American naval base in Subic Bay, which is now an economic freeport zone.

The report comes amid the heightening tensions in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines, whose allies include the United States. /cb