Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The United States and the Philippines are stepping up joint naval and marine to counter China's expanding reach across disputed waters in Southeast Asia.
Under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, the allies have added a new access site on Balabac Island at the southern tip of Palawan -- strategically located between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.
The expanded cooperation underscores Washington's effort to reinforce Manila's defenses and mounting maritime pressure from Beijing.
But in the southern Philippines -- from the Sulu Sea to the island provinces of Basilan and Tawi-Tawi -- local fishers and Indigenous sea communities, like the Sama-Badjao, say the growing military presence has yet to bring real protection to their threatened livelihoods in their ancestral grounds.
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