P1.3-B newly upgraded runway at Basa Air Base opens

EDCA RUNWAY A plane takes off from the newly upgraded runway in Basa Air Base, Floridablanca, Pampanga province, on Monday. —GRIG C. MONTREGRANDE

FLORIDABLANCA, Pampanga—The Philippines and United States opened on Monday the newly upgraded P1.3-billion runway at Basa Air Base, the biggest project so far under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca).

The three-kilometer airstrip funded by the US Indo-Pacific Command can now accommodate larger and heavier planes for Philippine and US military operations, including fighter jets and transport planes. Repairs for the runway began in December last year and was completed in late October.

“With its rehabilitation and repair, the Basa Air Base runway will be able to serve as a safer, more reliable staging area for air force operations,” Philippine Air Force (PAF) chief Lt. Gen. Stephen Parreno said at the launching ceremony.

The United States also turned over an R-11 refueler truck to the PAF in the same event.

Basa Air Base—home to the PAF’s fighter aircraft—is one of the nine sites under the Edca, a key military pact signed in 2014 that allows Washington to build facilities and preposition assets in strategic locations in the country.

“I look forward to having our forces sharing this runway, facilities and time here at the 5th Fighter Wing, to exercise together and increase our capability and interoperability, all with the intent of ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Lt. Gen. Scott Pleus, commander of the 7th Air Force of the US Pacific Air Forces.

“While an outsider may just see a runway, the airman here today fully understands that a runway is the foundational component to power projection,” he said.

4 other Edca sites

Philippine and American fighter aircraft have been training together at the air base in recent years to boost interoperability.

There are nine other completed Edca projects at the Basa Air Base to date, including a warehouse, fuel storage tanks and a fusion center. The air base has seen the biggest investment of all the Edca bases so far with $66 million out of $82 million, according to the US embassy.

Aside from Basa, the four other original Edca sites are Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan, Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan, Cebu, and Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro.

This year, the Philippines gave Washington access to four additional locations including Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta. Ana, Cagayan; Lal-lo Airport in Lal-lo, Cagayan; Camp Melchor F. Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela; and Balabac Island in Palawan, amid concerns over China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., however, said these Edca sites are not meant to rile anyone.

“We are not here to engage in aggression against anyone. We are here to protect norms of international law … Through our alliance, we hope that in this part of the world, peace and stability grow so that in the greater picture of the dynamics of world geopolitics, one less hotspot in the world is provided for,” he said. INQ