BILATERAL ties between the Philippines and the United States have edged closer and closer in recent years amid ongoing tensions in the West Philippine Sea.
The latest development along this direction is Washington’s announcement it will provide $500 million (P29.2 billion) in military assistance to the Philippines.
This comes close on the heels of the recent meeting between our Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and their American counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III
Here’s Blinken talking: “We are now allocating an additional $500 million in foreign military financing to the Philippines to boost security collaboration with our oldest treaty ally in this region.”
Blinken noted that Washington’s relationship with Manila “is the strongest that it has ever been.” The assistance, he added, is “a once-in-a-generation investment to help modernize” the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard.
For his part, Austin said “this level of funding is unprecedented” and “sends a clear message of support for the Philippines” from the United States. US President Joe Biden had included in this year’s budget more than $128 million to fund important infrastructure projects under Washington’s Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with Manila. This represents a two-fold increase for enhancing the EDCA sites agreed with the Philippines under the 2014 agreement.
For his part, Secretary Teodoro Jr. said the US funding, including those for EDCA, would “serve to secure the Philippines’ credible deterrent posture” against “unlawful foreign aggression.”
It is true, he said, that every peso or dollar spent on strengthening Philippine capabilities to defend itself and to deter unlawful aggression will be a plus against any threat whether from China or any other country.
The funding would not only be for defense but also for civil defense purposes such as humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
The EDCA sites would also serve as venues for joint cooperation and interoperability between the United States and the Philippines and multilateral exercises with allied nations.
In other words, these are multidimensional investments that will assist Philippine development and serve to prevent unwanted and unlawful aggression by building a credible deterrent posture.
Manila and Washington both share concerns regarding Beijing’s “escalatory actions in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and elsewhere.”
We are glad, therefore, that Washington stands by its “ironclad defense commitment” to the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty forged in 1951.
