US Military Will Build Facilities in Old Lumbia Airport

Officials confirmed plans to allow the US Army to put up a facility inside the Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro City.

The US military will build facilities in the old Lumbia airport in this city under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin confirmed.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, in a speech he gave in Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday, said structures would be put up inside the old Lumbia Airport in Northern Mindanao to support plans by the US Army to establish a resupply and warehouse facility for its forces in the Philippines.

Gazmin, guest of honor during Monday’s 46th founding anniversary of Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID).

The defense chief said as soon as the required documents are processed in the coming months, US troops can “move in” to begin the construction of their facilities.

The Lumbia airport, the city’s old commercial airport, is now under the control of the 10th Tactical Operations Group of the Philippine Air Force, though the land belongs to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines-Department of Transportation and Communication.

Gazmin said that the Lumbia airport is one of the selected sites agreed upon by the Philippine government.

Under the EDCA, US forces are allowed to set up storage facilities and station forward personnel to maintain such facilities. These facilities must be being use by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The US military calls these facilities per-positioning areas wherein supplies, equipment’s ordnance and vehicles can be per-positioned in storage in preparation for possible conflict.