SANTA ANA, Philippines — Santa Ana, a remote coastal town on the northeastern tip of mainland Philippines, has long been known to tourists primarily for its beaches, waterfalls, fireflies and several casinos.
But things are changing since the sleepy town of about 35,000 people, which has no traffic lights, has become strategically important to the United States.
The United States and the Philippines, long-time treaty allies, have designated Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province as one of nine mostly rural areas where rotating forces of the U.S. military can camp indefinitely and store weapons and equipment at fortified regional military bases. It was identified as one of the Defense Cooperation Agreement.
At the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, thousands of U.S. troops withdrew from two huge naval and air bases in the Philippines, ending nearly a century of U.S. military presence in the country. In recent years, Washington has strengthened its arc of military alliances in Asia to counter an increasingly assertive China, which it views as its biggest security challenge.
This is in line with the Philippines’ efforts to strengthen its external defenses following an alarming spate of territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea that began last year. The collision on the high seas injured several Philippine Navy personnel, damaged a ship and strained diplomatic relations.
The remote town of Santa Ana is caught up in the geopolitical conflict between Washington and Beijing because of its strategic location. The island lies across the maritime border from Taiwan, an autonomous island that China considers a renegade province that should be recaptured by force if necessary. The United States has vowed to defend the territory.
Some villagers in Santa Ana have expressed anxiety about the possibility of living near U.S. troops. Governor Manuel Mamba has fiercely opposed the looming US military presence in Cagayan, saying it would make Cagayan a Chinese military target.
Other villagers say the Philippines needs the United States as an important counterweight to China, which they say uses military force to threaten Manila’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
“We have no choice. If you compare the number of our troops to the number of Chinese troops, they have much more troops,” Santa Ana’s planning and economic development official Romeo Asunción told The Associated Press . “If the Americans are here, they will protect us no matter what happens.”
There is also the prospect of economic benefits and aid from the presence of U.S. troops.
“If they donate the school, it will be a good thing,” Asunción said.
Rowena Castillo, a consultant to the mayor, expressed hope that increased attention to Santa Ana would boost tourism. She recently distributed brochures promoting the town’s beach resorts, waterfalls, historic lighthouse, crocodile-shaped island and firefly-rich area.
Some villagers acknowledged that because Santa Ana is relatively close to Taiwan, the town would likely be affected by a military conflict between major powers, even without U.S. troops.
Authorities and village leaders recently held a meeting led by the local military, including the possibility of setting up emergency shelters for refugees in case tensions between China and Taiwan escalate into armed conflict. We discussed emergency response plans, said Marion Miranda, Santa Ana’s disaster prevention officer. a police officer told The Associated Press.
“One of the issues is where we can take potential refugees and the budget for that,” Miranda said.
In another rural Cagayan town called Larro, southwest of Santa Ana, part of the airport had been designated as a potential site for a U.S. military encampment.
Unlike the two huge military bases that the US military once occupied, including the naval base at Subic Bay, which was roughly the size of Singapore and had a vibrant red-light district, the US military is now occupying a much smaller area within Singapore. We are building a new presence in camping in the philippines.
Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters carrying coalition forces, weapons and other supplies arrive at Lallo Airport and Naval Camp during a large-scale combat exercise called Balikatan (meaning “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog) that ended Friday. took off and landed. Santa Ana. Several journalists, including those from the Associated Press, were invited to witness the combat exercises.
“This is an important location. It’s extremely important because it’s the base for EDCA, and it’s a very big issue for the United States and for the Philippines,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Matthew Schultz told reporters at Larroe Airport. Ta.
“One of the challenges this airfield has right now is that it doesn’t have enough parking, taxiways or additional apron space to accommodate that many aircraft,” Schultz said.
U.S. Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said in a phone call from Washington that the EDCA agreement, signed in 2014, originally had a 10-year term, but was automatically extended by mutual agreement.
The agreement allows rotating U.S. forces to stay at military facilities free of charge and store defense equipment, excluding nuclear weapons.
The United States has allocated more than $82 million for the construction of ammunition and fuel storage, urban combat training facilities, aircraft parking, runway repairs, and humanitarian supplies warehouses at EDCA’s first five sites.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last year agreed to add four more EDCA locations where U.S. troops can be stationed, including the Philippine Navy Camp in Santa Ana and Larro Airport.
Marcos and other Philippine officials said the new U.S. military presence would strengthen the country’s external defenses, help Filipinos respond more quickly to natural disasters, and would be targeted at specific countries. states that it is not.
However, China has expressed alarm at the increased deployment of US forces in the Philippines and other parts of Asia, saying the EDCA base in the northern Philippines could become a surveillance outpost or a base for the US military to contain China.
Romualdez said this show of combat readiness by the United States and the Philippines is aimed at making Chinese leader Xi Jinping aware of the cost of wrong actions and preventing a large-scale conflict.
“We’re doing all of this really as a deterrent,” Romualdez said. “We’re trying to tell Mr. Xi to wake up in the morning and say to himself, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ Today, tomorrow, and hopefully never again.”
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Associated Press journalist Joel Calpitan in Manila contributed to this report.
