Geopolitical analyst Prof. Anna Malindog-Uy has questioned the sudden arrival of American troops at Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro, one of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites, suggesting that the stated humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) training may only serve as a “smoke screen.”
In an interview with Bombo Radyo, Uy said it is natural for military officials to frame the deployment as disaster response training, but she found it puzzling why U.S. forces are conducting such activities in the Philippines instead of training local responders.
She emphasized that if disaster preparedness were the true objective, Filipino personnel should be the ones receiving direct training to strengthen the country’s own capacity.
Uy pointed out that despite the frequent typhoons and floods in Mindanao, American troops have not been visibly involved in actual rescue operations.
She also noted that local authorities cannot freely use EDCA facilities without coordination with the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Her doubts stem largely from the lack of transparency, as media have been barred from observing the training inside the base.
Uy argued that if the activities were genuinely humanitarian in nature, there should be no reason to keep them hidden from the public.
