Marcos defends US ammo hub; Trump takes jab at Du30
President Marcos defended the strategic importance of the ammunition hub that the United States plans to build in Subic, amid fears it would further mark the country as China’s “target” in its rivalry with the United States for military dominance in the region.
The President dismissed the concerns following his meeting at the White House with US President Donald Trump, where the American leader also made public his unflattering view of Mr. Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Without mentioning Duterte by name, Trump said the “last administration”—whose economic and foreign policies were largely defined by its so-called pivot to Beijing—“did not know what they were doing.”
In a press conference after meeting with Trump at the Oval Office on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila), Mr.Marcos said “There’s been much comment that these military infrastructures and programs we are initiating will make us a target of China.”
“Are we not already a target for China? So, I think that what we have to be thinking about is protecting the Philippines,” he said when asked how he would take China’s expected protest against the Subic project and similar US-backed initiatives.
‘Speedy ones, slow ones’
The planned ammunition hub also cropped up during the Oval Office meeting, with Trump saying the project was “very important to me.”
Once it is built, the United States and the Philippines “will end up with more ammunition and missiles than any country has ever had.”
“We’re gonna have all the speedy missiles, the speedy ones, the slow ones, the accurate ones, the ones that are slightly less accurate,” he told reporters.
The US House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill in July directing concerned agencies to study the feasibility of establishing “a joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility” in Subic, a former American naval base.
For the United States, the bill said, locating the hub in the Philippines would address its lack of a “forward stage ammunition manufacturing facility in the Indo-Pacific.”
For ‘self-reliance’
Various groups have expressed opposition to the plan, warning it would further make the Philippines a target of US enemies—possibly Russia and China—in the event of a global conflict.
According to Mr. Marcos, having the hub would be another way for Washington to help boost Manila’s “self-reliance defense posture program… allowing us to be able to stand on our own two feet, whatever the circumstances that occur in the future.”
Having “more interaction” with the United States and other like-minded nations as far as Europe was “necessary” in response to the situation in the South China Sea, he added.
Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. earlier cited the defensive and economic advantages of hosting the US facility.
Teodoro said it may be run by a private entity, creating 200 to 300 highly technical jobs and addressing the current “worldwide shortage” of munitions.
‘Not your fault’
With the building of the ammunition hub, Trump said, his administration and that of Mr. Marcos “are going to have a very good relationship.”
“I know you have some problems with another president,” Trump said, apparently referring to Duterte. “I know it’s not your fault. It’s the [other] president’s fault.”
“I think I can say that the last administration was not getting along with them too well. They didn’t get along with anybody. Honestly, they didn’t know what they were doing.”
“But we have some fantastic military relationships with the Philippines; that’s being reinstituted,” he added.
Turning to his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was also in the meeting, he said: “And Pete, I would say that you couldn’t be happier, right, with the relationship?”
During his first term as US president, Trump visited Manila and was hosted by then President Duterte in November 2017.
When still in power, Duterte publicly threatened to scrap the 1999 US-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement and the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, the latter after the United States reportedly revoked the visa of his staunch ally, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who as former national police chief enforced his brutal antidrug campaign.
Duterte is currently detained at The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court over the thousands killed during the crackdown.
