American boy

It is now clear as a hot summer day the United States won’t pay direct compensation for the use by the US armed forces of what is now nine Philippine military bases located from north to central to south of the 7,600-island archipelago.

The reason maybe is that some generals or naughty politicians could fritter away such sums ($500 million a year when President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was in power), if they join the wrong side of history.

Instead, the US government will invest money, by itself or jointly with large American companies or institutions, in people, in their well-being, education, livelihood, infrastructure, in their communities. The result is a better life for many Filipinos.

The May 1-4, 2023 official visit of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr., 65, and the deals he wangled from the administration of President Joseph Biden, 80, certify him as an American boy.

But it does not mean BBM is now anti-China. Such disengagement (from Beijing), “is not an option,” he clarifies.  Our President is practicing what his father espoused, a bold foreign policy.

Some of the projects promised BBM by Biden himself:

• The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a new partnership to scale up infrastructure development in the Philippines and support the construction of high-quality railways, ports and transport systems.

• In 2023, the US Trade and Development Agency will leverage over $3 billion of public and private financing to strengthen the Philippines’ critical mineral supply chains, advance smart grid technologies and clean energy solutions, promote secure 5G deployment, strengthen airport security and maritime safety and support health care infrastructure across the Philippines.

• US will spend $70 million to develop a new generation of Phl leaders – 2,000 in 10 years.

• It will spend $30 million to improve the quality of Phl universities.

Best of all, the South China Sea, or West Philippine Sea, is now reckoned as part of the Philippine metropolitan territory in the implementation of the Phl-US Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951.

Under the MDT, if the Philippines or any part of its territory, vessels, boats, including those of the Philippine Coast Guard, is attacked with force, it will trigger an armed attack from the US because such attack is as if the US itself was attacked.

Biden reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines, and the leaders discussed efforts to strengthen the longstanding US-Philippines alliance.

On May 1, 2023, at the White House, President Biden reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad alliance commitments to the Philippines. An armed attack in the Pacific, which includes the South China Sea, on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft, including those of the Coast Guard, would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 MDT.

Biden and BBM agreed to deepen economic cooperation and promote inclusive prosperity, expand our nations’ special people-to-people ties, invest in the clean energy transition and address the climate crisis and ensure respect for human rights. The leaders discussed regional matters and coordinated on efforts to uphold international law and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Biden and Marcos announced a number of new arrangements and initiatives to expand on the historic momentum in US-Philippine relations, including the adoption of Bilateral Defense Guidelines, President Biden’s dispatching of a Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines, the launch of an Open RAN 5G interoperability lab in Manila and the establishment of a bilateral Labor Working Group.

The Philippines is the US’s oldest ally in the Indo-Pacific. Since 1951, the US-Philippines alliance has advanced peace, prosperity and security for the United States, the Philippines and the broader Indo-Pacific region, said a White House briefing paper.

The US and the Philippines are modernizing the alliance and building a strong and resilient architecture that is designed to meet emerging challenges, while routinizing joint planning and improving interoperability.

On April 28, 2023, their armies concluded the largest-ever iteration of their flagship bilateral military exercise, Balikatan. “We are also expanding cooperation among our coast guards to better address the challenges posed by illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and other unlawful maritime activities; when Vice President Harris visited Palawan in November 2022, she announced $7.5 million in new assistance to enhance the capabilities of Philippine maritime law enforcement agencies, as well as a new program to upgrade the Philippine Coast Guard’s vessel traffic management system,” said the White House paper.

Phl and US have identified four new sites pursuant to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which “will strengthen Philippine security and support the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ modernization goals, while driving US investment to local communities across the Philippines and improving our shared ability to rapidly deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

Other initiatives:

• Bilateral Defense Guidelines that institutionalize key bilateral priorities, mechanisms and processes to deepen alliance cooperation and interoperability across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace.

The Guidelines support the continued modernization of the alliance and ongoing efforts to adapt alliance coordination to respond to the evolving security environment.

The two countries will advance efforts to deepen interoperability, particularly through enhanced bilateral planning; information-sharing; accelerated defense capability development and collaboration on emerging security challenges.

• The US will transfer to the Armed Forces of the Philippines two Island-class patrol vessels, two Protector-class patrol vessels and three C-130H aircraft, pending applicable congressional notification requirements. Additionally, two Cyclone-class coastal patrol vessels were transferred to the Philippines in late April and are now en route to Manila.

These transfers will support AFP’s modernization program by enhancing its maritime and tactical lift capabilities.

• At the nine EDCA sites, the US will support health, education, environmental protection, economic growth and disaster preparedness.

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]