Philippines gives US access to strategic military bases

Philippines has announced that the United States military forces could access four additional bases location in the Southeast Asian nation, despite opposition from China.

Meanwhile, US Forces already had access to five military bases under a 2014 defense cooperation agreement.

Philippine's defense chief Carlito Galvez called the sites very strategic.

According to



media reports, three of the sites are in the northern Philippines, including a naval base at Cagayan's Santa Ana, about 400 kilometers from Taiwan. Another is an air base on Balabac Island, off the southern tip of Palawan Island, near the South China Sea.

The decision of expand the US access under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) was made in February.