Don’t tie aid to RP record, US urged

By Cynthia Balana

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 02:33:00 02/10/2008



MANILA, Philippines -- The administration has asked lawmakers in the United States not to peg the amount of Washington’s military assistance to the Philippines on the latter’s human rights record, arguing that the two were distinct from each other and must be addressed separately.

“I told the legislators that the issue of US foreign military assistance and reports about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines should be treated separately,” Ambassador to Washington Willy Gaa told the Inquirer shortly before he flew back to the US on Friday.

Gaa was in Manila for a week to host a golf tournament for some 100 Filipino-Americans at the Sherwood and Mimosa golf clubs in Cavite and Angeles City, respectively.

Gaa admitted that American legislators were greatly concerned about the persistent reports of human rights violations allegedly committed by the Philippine military and police.

He, however, said the move of the administration of President George W. Bush to cut by 50 percent the proposed US foreign military assistance to the Philippines from the million in 2007 in the 2008 federal budget was “expected.”

“That’s normal. Last year, they started with a much lower base but it went up to million,” Gaa said.

“We have been telling them that the human rights record of the Philippines should not be tied to the assistance. We have raised this concern with the Department of State. We are going to inform them of what the government has been doing to address their concerns, particularly the issue of extrajudicial killings,” he said.

A source in the Department of Foreign Affairs said the -million proposal could still go up once budget deliberations begin on Capitol Hill, as happened in the past.

Asked why the budget allocation was cut so sharply, the source said: “Well, we (Philippines) have no more strategic meaning to them. In short, we’re not on their radar screen.”

Last Monday, Bush asked for million in military aid for the Philippines next year. He requested less than that last year, but the US Congress boosted the military aid to the country to almost million.

The Philippines, which was occupied by the United States in the first half of the 20th century, and Indonesia previously had parts of their US military aid linked to improvements in their rights records.

US officials had expressed concern over the wave of killings of left-wing activists in the Philippines. The military has said it has no policy of targeting civilians.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon earlier expressed the hope that funds would still flow to development projects in the Philippines even if the usual financing for the military were reduced.

Esperon pointed to reported plans by the US to spend some million to repair the airport on Jolo island—where US-trained Filipino soldiers are fighting Muslim extremists—and for engineering and civic action programs in other areas.