The Philippines government is analyzing a plan to grant U.S. and Japanese armed forces greater access to its territory, says the Defense Secretary, Voltaire Gazmin.
The proposal arose after a meeting held between Gazmin and his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera.
The presence of more U.S. and Japanese soldiers in the Philippines is being received by the government of president Benigno Aquino as a guarantee of safety.
The project, according to Gazmin, will not include the construction of new bases or a permanent foreign military presence.
Until the early 1990’s, the Pentagon kept thousands of soldiers in Philippines, but was forced to withdraw them due to the negative feelings of the people towards the U.S., and disputes related to the lease payments for those bases.
The Philippines constitution bans the establishment of permanent foreign bases, one of the consequences of numerous decades of U.S. colonization.
Via PL