US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said that one of the country's Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites will get an airstrip extension.

The American envoy bared in an interview with GMA Integrated News on Friday night that the Basa Air Base in Pampanga—one of the five existing EDCA sites in the country—will undergo rehabilitation for it to become useful and keep "the people safe."

The project is one of the biggest in the pipeline, according to Carlson, as Washington has allotted about 80 million US dollars for its military cooperation with Manila.

It will break ground on March 20, she said. The chief of the US Air Force will be invited to attend the ceremony.

"There are many projects in the pipeline. There are so many I cannot even enumerate them," she added.

With several Philippine governors expressing objection against the establishment of more EDCA sites, Carlson did not believe they would be a "magnet" for military attacks, considering that currently in places without an EDCA site, fisherfolks are already experiencing harassment from China.

"It is hard to imagine that any individual project in any individual province would be the target. Certainly, we've seen in the South China Sea, in the West Philippines, aggressive behavior against innocent fisherfolk where there's no EDCA site at all," she said.

"So that aggressive behavior could come in any form," she added.