US backs Arroyo’s reforms

The United States supports the reforms President Arroyo has put on track, said Thomas Hubbard, the US acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Since assuming the presidency on Jan. 20, Mrs. Arroyo has already launched "an ambitious agenda to put the Philippines securely on the reform track," Hubbard told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs in a testimony delivered March 6.

Hubbard said the Philippine president has a "capable administration" prepared to move forward on her top priorities, which include alleviating poverty, accelerating economic reform, combating corruption, enhancing transparency and good governance and promoting peaceful national reconciliation.

The State Department and the US Agency for International Development are working together to provide assistance to the Philippines for programs that encourage reform, reduce corruption, and increase transparency and probity in economic governance, according to Hubbard.

As to the 50-year-old US-Philippine Alliance, Hubbard said that the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) has allowed security relations to "rebound" in the aftermath of the 1992 withdrawal of US military facilities in the Philippines.

"While neither side seeks a return to past levels of military interaction," Hubbard said, "the VFA gives us the framework to develop an effective program of activities that best meets the requirements of current tasks in the Philippines and in the region."

In an effort to help Philippine efforts to accelerate military modernization, the US is focusing on the Philippine Armed Forces’ operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities, said the former US Ambassador to Manila.

"While we have supplied Excess Defense Articles to the Philippines in the past, the best way to address these vital O&M needs and build the right capabilities is through continued funding of the Philippines’ FMF (Foreign Military Financing) and IMET (International Military Education and Training) programs," Hubbard said. The Philippines’ FMF level for FY 2001 is $2 million.