Lt. Gen. Michael Cederholm, commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force, speaks with Marines assigned to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing during a visit to Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Philippines, April 18, 2025. (Erica Padgett/U.S. Marine Corps)
Philippine officials said this week that military facilities shared with U.S. forces are not involved in the escalating conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, rejecting suggestions that the sites could become targets.
Some groups are using the Middle East conflict to sow “fear and apprehension” among Filipinos, Department of National Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong told the state-run Philippine News Agency on Monday.
The U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes Saturday on Iran, killing its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and prompting Iran to retaliate with missile strikes against neighboring countries, including Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Six American have died in the conflict so far.
In the Philippines, attention has focused on sites covered under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA, a 2014 deal that grants U.S. forces access to nine Philippine military facilities.
“Certain groups are using the events in the Middle East to justify their disdain for EDCA sites in the Philippines, completely ignoring the fact that EDCA sites are not U.S. bases, but Philippine facilities, developed and used jointly for training, [humanitarian assistance and disaster relief], and the defense and security of our country,” Andolong said.
The U.S. vacated its permanent bases in the Philippines in 1992. Under EDCA, American forces may operate from designated Philippine facilities on a rotational basis.
The chairman of the Philippine Senate’s foreign relations committee, Erwin Tulfo, warned that EDCA sites could become targets, the Philippine Star reported Tuesday.
Andolong said hostilities are confined to the Middle East and that EDCA locations are not being used to stage attacks.
“The Philippines is not a participant in the theater of conflict,” he said. “As such, there is no credible direct threat to the Philippines or facilities therein.”
Philippine national security adviser Eduardo Ano echoed that position in remarks carried by the Philippine News Agency.
“The U.S. presence in the sites is not permanent but rotational and serves to strengthen the capabilities of the [Philippine military] and advance the modernization program,” he said.
There are no verified threats to Philippine territory related to the Iran conflict, Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales and lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said by email Tuesday.
However, he added: “Given the hostile demonstrations by some Muslim communities in Pakistan, Malaysia and Australia in response to U.S. intervention in Iran, one cannot discount some sort of violent attack directed at American diplomatic missions, American diplomats and military officials or American businessmen, expatriates and tourists serving in or visiting the Philippines.”
In a Feb. 25 post on X, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said disaster readiness experts were expanding emergency supply depots at EDCA sites, describing the resources as intended to support humanitarian response.
The facilities are also expected to host U.S. forces during the upcoming annual Balikatan exercise, which last year involved thousands of troops from the U.S., Philippines and allied countries in island defense training.
