UNITED States President Donald Trump yesterday emphasized the importance of setting up an ammunition manufacturing facility in Subic Bay in Zambales, highlighting his country’s efforts to increase its missiles and ammunition.
“That’s very important. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have approved it,” Trump said during a joint media briefing with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Oval Office in the White House on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
“We need ammunition… we’ll have more ammunition than any country has ever had… missiles, the speedy ones, the slow ones, the accurate ones — we have everything,” he added.
The US House Committee on Appropriations earlier ordered the Department of Defense, State Department, and the International Development Finance Corp. to assess the feasibility of establishing an ammunition hub at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, which will form part of a broader US-Philippines defense cooperation agenda under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
Marcos, in a briefing with the Philippine media delegation before he left the US, said the Philippines has been planning to engage in ammunition production as part of the country’s Self-Reliant Defense Posture (SRDP) which will allow the country to be “self-reliant and to be able to stand on our own two feet, whatever the circumstances that occur in the future.”
“That’s really something that we were going to do anyway. Even if we do not have help, we will still be doing it. And they have offered to help. So, we will do that,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
The President also allayed concerns that putting up the facility would make the country a target of China.
China has been bullying and harassing Philippine ships in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea which it claims almost in its entirety.
“Are we not already a target for China? So, I think that what we have to be thinking about is protecting the Philippines,” Marcos said.
At a joint briefing with Trump, Marcos said the Philippines has been modernizing its armed forces because “we feel this is necessary,” and in “response to the circumstances that surround the situation around the South China Sea.”
“Any kind of military spending, we would wish that if it wasn’t necessary, but it is. And so that is what we are doing,” he said.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the planned ammunition hub is expected to help generate jobs as it would initially employ some 200 to 300 “highly technical people” and eventually expand to other industries and areas.
“We can envision a private entity going about it on a commercial basis, so that they can hire people on a commercial basis. Depending on the scale, initially about 200 to 300 people, highly technical people,” he said.
“But then, there are downstream industries. Of course, they will have to build access to port facilities. It will regenerate revenue on a commercial basis for Subic. It will increase our trade flows,” he added.
Trump said he does “not mind” if the Philippines gets along with China because the US itself has a “very good relationship” with Beijing.
Trump made the statement after Marcos was asked how Manila intends to balance its relationship with Washington and Beijing.
Trump said Marcos should do what is right and what would make the “Philippines great again.”
“I’ve always said, you know, make the Philippines great again. Do whatever you need to do, but your dealing with China wouldn’t bother me at all … it’s something that we’ll have to deal with in due course,” he said.
Trump said the Philippines for a time had been “tilting” towards China, which he said he felt was not really good for the country. He said it has changed when he came into office.
Marcos said the Philippines does not need to find a balance because it has adopted an independent foreign policy.
He said while the country is “essentially concerned with the defense of our territory and the exercise of our sovereign rights,” it will defend its rights either on its own with its partners and allies.
He said apart from being allied with the US, the Philippines is also trying to form coalitions and multilateral relations with “like-minded nations who share the same values as we do, who hew to international law, most specifically the UNCLOS.”
Prior to the meeting with Trump, Marcos had also met separately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe in Washington and underscored the importance of the alliance and exchanges between the Philippines and the US especially amid the developments in the world.
