Pentagon: New Edca sites for ‘regional readiness’

by Frances Mangosing Jacob Lazaro Inquirer.net

MANILA — The U.S. Department of Defense said the new sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) with the Philippines were aimed at “regional readiness” to address “a range of shared challenges in the Indo-Pacific region” amid concerns over China’s continued assertiveness in the South China Sea and its potential invasion of Taiwan.

The Philippines and the United States on Monday, April 3 identified four additional locations — including three facing Taiwan and one near Chinese

Two PH-born soldiers among 9 killed in US Army copter crash

TWO Filipinos were among the nine soldiers killed in a crash involving two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters near Fort Campbell, at the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

Cpl. Emilie Marie Eve Bolanos, 23, from Austin, Texas, and Sgt. Isaac John Gayo, from Los Angeles were part of the 101st Airborne Division Soldiers participating in a nighttime training exercise when the crash happened on Wednesday, March 29 at around 10 p.m.

Bolanos and Gayo were both born in the Philippines. She enlisted in Austin, he in Los Angeles, both in 2019.

Both were in Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training and in Fort Eustis, Virginia for advanced individual training.

Harvard offers Tagalog course for first time in its history

FOR the first time in its history, Harvard University is offering a Tagalog language course starting the 2023-24 academic year.

The Department of South Asian Studies secured funding to hire a preceptor in addition to two who are already teaching Bahasa Indonesian and Thai. Tagalog is the fourth most spoken language in the United States.

The department’s Asia Center raised financial support for three-year term artificial military outposts in the West Philippine Sea — that would allow an expansion of American military presence from the five existing sites under the defense pact signed in 2014.

“These new locations will strengthen the interoperability of the [U.S.] and Philippine armed forces and allow us to respond more seamlessly together to address a range of shared challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, including natural and humanitarian disasters,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a press briefing in Washington on Monday.

The four new sites are the Camilo Osias Naval Base in Santa Ana, Cagayan; Lal-lo Airport also in Cagayan; Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela; and Balabac Island in Palawan.

The Pentagon official stressed that the United States was not seeking permanent basing, pointing out that “this is really about regional readiness.”

“So you’re going to see an increase of rotational forces in the region, but this is more about supporting combined training, being able to respond to natural disaster, humanitarian disasters in the region,” she explained.

The United States will be pouring more funds into the new Edca sites on top of the $82 million already allocated to the existing ones, namely