Sleepy far-flung towns in the Philippines will host US forces returning to counter China threats

A resident brings down a sack from his boat at the coastal town of Santa Ana, Cagayan province, northern Philippines on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.

The remote town of Santa Ana is caught in the geo-political rivalry between Washington and Beijing because of its strategic location. It lies across a sea border from Taiwan, the self-governing island that China regards as a renegade province to be reclaimed by force if necessary. The U.S. has vowed to defend

“There’s no choice. If you compare the number of our forces with that of China, they have much, much more,” Romeo Asuncion, a planning and economic development officer in Santa Ana, told The Associated Press. “If the Americans are here, they would protect us whatever happens.”“If they donate a school that will be good,” Asuncion said.

Authorities and village leaders recently met at the initiative of the local military to discuss contingency plans, including the possibility of setting up emergency shelters for refugees, in case tensions between China and Taiwan flare into an armed conflict, Marion Miranda, Santa Ana’s disaster-mitigating officer, told The AP.In another rural Cagayan town southwest of Santa Ana called Lal-lo, part of the airport was designated as a possible encampment site for American forces.

"One of the challenges that we have in this airfield now is there is not a lot of parking space or taxiways or additional apron space in order to facilitate a lot of aircraft,” Schultz said.

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