Amount on top of $128M for EDCA projects
US DEFENSE Secretary Lloyd Austin III and Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday announced a $500-million (about P29.3 billion) assistance to the Philippines, which Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr said will help deter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
The visiting US officials announced the assistance following a meeting with their Filipino counterparts — Teodoro and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo — at the AFP headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
“We are poised to deliver a once-in-a-generation investment to help modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard,” Austin said in a press conference after the “2+2” meeting. “We are working with the US Congress to allocate $500 million in foreign military financing into the Philippines.”
Austin said the “unprecedented” funding “sends a clear message of support for the Philippines” from the administration of US President Joseph Biden Jr, the US Congress, and the American people.
Austin said the funding will be on top of the $128 million (about P7.5 billion) that the Biden administration requested to fund projects under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
There are nine EDCA sites in the country, all inside with Philippine military installations, where Americans are allowed to put up facilities to preposition assets, for external and humanitarian assistance operations.
Austin said the US Agency for International Development is also planning to preposition “vast relief supplies” to these EDCA sites later this year so assistance can be provided to people in times of need.
Sources said the $500 million assistance is on top of the annual $40 million (P2.34) billion that the Philippines receives from the United States.
Austin said they affirmed during the meeting that the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries “remains the bedrock of our alliance.”
“And let me be clear: The Mutual Defense Treaty applies to armed attacks on either of our armed forces, aircraft or public vessels anywhere in South China Sea,” he said.
Teodoro said the two sides will discuss the capabilities that will be covered by the assistance.
“The priorities will be laid down in security sector assistance roadmap. Naturally, a lot of our inherent hardening capabilities are included, like cyber capabilities and the like,” he said.
“This and all the EDCA investments will serve to secure the Philippines’ credible deterrent posture. Every peso or dollar spent on hardening Philippine capabilities to defend itself and to deter unlawful aggression will be a plus against any threat actor, whether it be China or anyone,” said Teodoro.
Teodoro said the EDCA projects are not solely for defense purposes but also for civil purposes like humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR).
“So these are not mono-dimensional but multi-dimensional investments that will help in the development of the country and to help to deter unwanted and unlawful aggression by building a credible deterrent posture,” he added.
Teodoro thanked the US for continuing to assist the Philippines in its efforts to build up capabilities, noting this provides a “tremendous boost in order for us to establish a credible deterrent to unlawful foreign aggression.”
“We discussed security assistance roadmap that will boost our sustainability, interoperability, redundancy and effectiveness,” he added.
He said they also discussed “ways and means” to enhance the cooperation of the two nations and to ensure that the Philippines becomes an “effective upholder of international law under a free and open global rules-based order.”
Teodoro said the two sides also agreed to ensure “frequent and regular policy and operational coordination.”
He said they also agreed to bolster maritime cooperative activities and expand coordination with Japan, Australia and other like-minded nations.
“We agreed to fully implement EDCA projects and to increase investments in EDCA locations. In this period of climate change uncertainty, this will certainly help our HADR efforts once these projects are completed,” he added.
OPEN LINES
Blinken and Austin met with President Marcos Jr who has moved the Philippines closer to Washington since he replaced Rodrigo Duterte, who was openly hostile to the Americans and pursued warmer ties with China during his six-year term.
“I’m always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things that we are doing together, in terms of our alliance, in terms of the specific context of our situation here in the West Philippine Sea and in the Indo-Pacific are continuously examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Marcos said.
He said he was glad, albeit surprised that two of the top American officials were still able to visit the country amid the “interesting political situation” in the US.
Blinken and Austin are in the Philippines for the Fourth Philippines-United States 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue with Manalo and Teodoro. It is the first time that the 2+2 meeting is held in Manila as previous meetings were held in Washington.
The 2+2 meeting is a policy level dialogue co-chaired by the secretaries of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of National Defense, and the US Department of State and Department of Defense.
Blinken said the Philippines’ hosting of the 2+2 meeting is proof of a “steady drumbeat, a very high-level engagements between our countries that are covering the full range of issues and opportunities that bring us together, not only security but also economic.”
He said the US is truly grateful for its partnership with the Philippines and looks forward to further advancing the critical work that Manila and Washington are doing together.
Austin echoed Blinken and emphasized the strong alliance between the Philippines and the US.
He said the two countries are more than allies as “we’re family and it always feels that way, when, you know, I’m working with our colleagues.”
“We have common interests, common values and so I think we’ve done a lot for the last three and a half years to continue to strengthen our alliance and we look forward to continuing to work with you and your team to move even further,” he said.
The meetings in Manila follow talks between Blinken and Austin and their counterparts in Japan, another key US ally in East Asia, where they announced an upgrade of the US military command in Japan and labelled China the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the region.
Blinken also met on Monday with foreign ministers from Australia, India and Japan, a grouping known as the Quad, and decried China’s actions in the South China Sea.
He met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Laos on Saturday and criticized Beijing for actions regarding Taiwan and the Philippines. He told Wang “China must uphold its commitments to not obstruct the Philippines in their resupply missions,” he said.
China’s foreign ministry hit back at Washington and Tokyo, for attacking what it called China’s “normal military development and national defense policy” and accused the Quad of “artificially creating tension, inciting confrontation and containing the development of other countries.”
The Philippines has competing claims with China in the waters to its west also known as the South China Sea. China claims 90% of the sea as its sovereign territory.
Violence broke out after a Filipino sailor lost a finger in a June 17 mission to resupply troops stationed at the Ayungin Shoal after what Manila described as “intentional-high speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard.
Manila reached a provisional arrangement with China for resupply missions this month to ease tensions and manage differences, but the two sides appear at odds over the details of the deal, which has not been made public.
INFORMATION EXCHANGE
Manalo, in the same news conference, said the Philippines agreed to an “exchange of information” under its arrangement with China.
He also said the deployment of a US intermediate range missile system that China has opposed is not meant for offensive purposes.
“I don’t see any reason why it would lead to an arms race. They are meant for our defensive capability, not for offensive purposes,” Manalo said when asked about Beijing’s opposition to the deployment of the Typhon missile system which could fire Tomahawk land attack cruise missile and SM-6 intermediate range missile.
It was deployed as part of joint military drills earlier this year between US and Philippine forces.
The system was not fired during the military exercises and officials would not give details on how long it would stay in the country.
Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the Philippines over the US Typhon missile deployment, saying such a move could fuel regional tensions and spark an arms race.
DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION
Maritime expert Jay Batongbacal told the House committee on human rights that China is “deliberately destroying the resources there so Filipinos will have no reason to go there anymore.”
The committee is looking into the human rights violations suffered by Filipino fisherman in Bataan, Pangasinan, and Zambales who are engaged in fishing in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, told the panel chaired by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, that by doing so, China is imposing a “scorched-earth policy.”
He said the aggression is meant to intimidate Filipino fishermen so they can “appropriate” even without having Chinese fishermen there and “do anything they want.”
Last month, Batongbacal said the Chinese Coast Guard is a “true maritime danger agency at the forefront of China’s scorched earth/seas policy for the SCS (South China Sea).”
Aurea Miclat-Teves, president of the Peoples Development Institute, during the hearing, called for the following: full implementation of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; effective protection by the Philippine Coast Guard of fishermen in Philippine waters; economic support services to fishermen; demand apology from China for its actions and for reparations for crimes against Filipino fisherfolk; and bringing the violations before an international arbitral body.
House leaders also vowed to give ample support to the defense of the country’s territory and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the proposed P6.352-trillion 2025 national budget, particularly providing sufficient funding for the PCG. — With Jocelyn Montemayor, Ashzel Hachero, Wendell Vigilia and Reuters
