Manila offers US its military bases

The US would be allowed to station forces at military bases in the Philippines if it went to war with North Korea, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said yesterday citing a treaty between the allies.
"Our mutual defence treaty calls for joint action if either the Philippines or the United States is attacked," del Rosario said in comments sent to AFP at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.
"It would then be logical to assume that in the event of an attack on the Philippines or on our treaty ally, the US would be allowed to use our bases," he added.
Del Rosario was responding to a question about whether the archipelago, a former US colony, would allow the stationing of American troops on its soil in case war broke out between the US and North Korea.
The Korean peninsula has been engulfed by escalating military tensions and dire threats of nuclear war since North Korea conducted a rocket test last December and a nuclear test in February.