Philippines builds Balabac base

The Philippines is building out a military facility on Balabac, a southern Palawan island that Manila has folded into its defense pact with the United States. (youtube.com) Balabac was formally named on April 3, 2023 as one of four new sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, joining five earlier locations where the two allies can fund and build shared-use military infrastructure. The Pentagon said at the time the projects would add to more than $82 million already allocated for existing agreement sites. (war.gov) Philippine reporting in 2024 and 2025 described the Balabac project as more than a small outpost. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the plan covered a joint-use runway, an air base and a naval station, and local reports said the Philippine Air Force base sits on a 300-hectare property. (gmanetwork.com) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on July 18, 2024 that the military runway on Balabac was already in its final stage. Palawan News then reported on June 6, 2025 that Teodoro and Air Force chief Arthur Cordura inspected ongoing work at an airport facility in Barangay Catagupan that would also serve as a forward operating base. (philstar.com) (palawan-news.com) Balabac sits at the southern tip of Palawan, near sea routes linking the Sulu Sea and the South China Sea and not far from Malaysia. Philippine officials have repeatedly described that geography as strategic, with the Philippine News Agency quoting then-defense chief Carlito Galvez Jr. in 2023 saying the island lies near major sea lanes of communication. (pna.gov.ph) That location has pulled Balabac into Manila’s wider shift toward external defense as confrontations with China intensified around the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine term for parts of the South China Sea inside its exclusive economic zone. A Philippine Air Force statement carried by Palawan News said the Balabac site would support rapid deployment across the West Philippine Sea and nearby waters. (palawan-news.com) The agreement underpinning the project does not create a permanent United States base in the old treaty-port sense. The arrangement allows the United States to rotate forces through Philippine-selected sites and fund facilities, while the bases remain Philippine-owned and Philippine-commanded. (pacom.mil) (asianmilitaryreview.com) By mid-2025, Teodoro was also talking about accelerating infrastructure on Balabac as part of a broader naval-basing push, according to Defense News. By late 2025, United States Naval Institute News reported that Philippine forces were already training to defend Balabac as a future base tied to South China Sea operations. (defensenews.com) (news.usni.org) China has opposed the expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, arguing that it raises regional tensions, while Philippine and United States officials have cast the sites as useful for deterrence, disaster response and alliance readiness. On Balabac, the concrete change is visible: Manila is turning a remote island approach into a runway-and-port node at the mouth of two busy seas. (war.gov) (youtube.com)