Last September 2020, a $643,000 US-funded animal disease diagnostic laboratory has been constructed in Tarlac City and turned over to the Department of Agriculture (DA), with the aim of supposedly boosting the country’s biosecurity efforts against transboundary animal diseases.
According to the DA, the new Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RADDL) in Paraiso, Tarlac City would provide “advanced service through modern technologies to ensure a healthy and resilient animal sector” in Central Luzon.
This project would certainly be a welcome development to reverse the dampening bilateral relations between Washington and Manila, had it not been for the fact that it was funded by the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency (US DTRA), which is an agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and is the official Combat Support Agency for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives).
In other words, a civilian laboratory was constructed on the dime of a foreign military agency, which has the responsibility of managing and integrating the US DoD chemical and biological defense science and technology programs.
This is concerning, because the task of civilian cooperation on bilateral agricultural concerns lies with the US Department of Agriculture, not with agencies within the US DoD, and allowing US DoD agencies to influence civilian agricultural initiatives gives rise to reasonable suspicions on the true objectives of these projects in the Philippines.
While it is true that the DTRA contributed in the international effort to confront Ebola by spending approximately $300 million on scientific R&D efforts since 2003 developing vaccines and therapeutic treatments, it should be noted that it has also participated in Syrian civil war, by developing the Field Deployable Hydrolysis System, which was used to destroy alleged Syrian chemical weapons.
Further, the DTRA has been involved in the Iraqi occupation, identifying, collecting and securing radiological material, including almost two tons of low enriched uranium (LEU), several hundred tons of yellowcake (a type of uranium powder), and other radioactive sources.
In other words, the funding agency for the PH DA agricultural labs have clear overt and covert military objectives in the Philippines which may not necessarily align with the civilian, even military objectives of Manila.
In fact, the funding of these laboratories is in line with DTRA strategic goals and objectives.
In its strategic plan for 2018-2022, the DTRA intends to strengthen alliances and attract new international partners, including nontraditional partners, within industry, universities, thinktanks, among others.
Certainly, the partnership with the PH DA fits within DTRA’s strategic objectives.
The DA said the RADDL will provide services and tests for trade, disease surveillance, and animal health, regulatory and research, including functioning as a training facility for veterinary clinicians, students and professionals in the region.
With the involvement of DTRA in these laboratories, the US military agency should disclose whether there are unspecified military objectives in funding the laboratory, and other labs in the future, particularly relating to the development of bioweapons.
It should also disclose the extent of its continuing involvement in these labs, on whether they are able to mutually determine policies, objectives, programs and activities with its PH counterparts, or whether its work terminates after turnover to PH authorities.
These questions are critical to determine whether the US have covert objectives in undertaking these projects in the Philippines, especially since the Tarlac biolab is just the first in a series of integrated laboratories planned by the DTRA.
In behalf of DTRA, Major Brian Smith said the Tarlac-based RADDL is part of an integrated network of laboratories that aim to identify diseases, or pathogens, prior to them spreading throughout the region, identify them early, and help mitigate the risk before it spreads.
In fact, since 2016, DTRA’s Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP) has spent approximately $25,000,000 in the Philippines, to fund the construction of new laboratories across the nation, support trainings, and provide biorisk management subject matter expertise.
Certainly, PH authorities, no less than the President, should look at these foreign activities with greater scrutiny than before, as there exist international partners in the civilian sector which can competently provide the same services to our agricultural sector but without the accompanying military risks.
It should be noted that the USDA, through its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, undertakes similar international cooperation by collaborating with foreign partners to control pests and diseases before they can harm the US, ensuring the effective and efficient management of internationally-based programs, and investing in international capacity-building with foreign counterparts to build technical and regulatory skills that prevent the spread of damaging pests and diseases.
With the President still in the process of determining the future of its military alliance with Washington, these activities should serve as warning signs that despite the President’s fiery rhetoric against the US, Washington continues with its objectives in the Philippines and the Pacific.