DEFENSE Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr yesterday said he is open to a plan of the United States to put up an ammunition production and storage facility at the former US naval base in Subic Bay.
Earlier reports said the US House committee on appropriations has ordered the US Department of Defense, Department of State and the International Development Finance Corp to assess the “feasibility of establishing a joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility” at Subic Bay.
It raised concern over the “lack of forward-staged ammunition manufacturing and storage facility in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Teodoro, in a press briefing after a meeting with Lithuanian Defense minister Dovilė Šakalienė in Makati City, said he has yet to see a formal proposal from US about the plan.
“But naturally, we will consider it and any production entity which will be of benefit to the Philippines and not only in terms of our resilience,” said Teodoro.
In an ambush interview, Teodoro also cited technological transfers and employment that may arise from such move. “Any production here that will result in technological transfer, employment, revenue is welcomed.”
“But I’m not putting the cart before the horse. I just learned this from the media,” he said.
“I am not aware of a definite proposal. It might be with the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) or DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). But to us (at the DND), none yet,” he said.
Teodoro and Šakalienė signed a cooperation agreement, bolstering the defense relations of the two nations.
Teodoro said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on defense cooperation is “groundbreaking in the sense that it would formalize our means to cooperate on a closer basis on a host of different things.”
Šakalienė told media after a meeting that the MOU is a “significant milestone that takes our bilateral ties to a strategic level.”
Teodoro and Šakalienė also discussed issues of mutual concern during their meeting, including Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
Teodoro cited the need to “resist any unilateral attempts to reword or re-engineer maritime law and the international order to the benefit of new powers that want to dominate the world and to the detriment of smaller nations.”
Teodoro said and Šakalienė agreed to collaborate on information exchange, civil defense.
