Palace alarmed, denies slash: US State Dep’t cuts aid to RP military



07/26/2007

Manila--- Aid to the Philippine military has been from slashed from some $30 million to a mere $11 million for 2008 or a cut of two thirds, by the United States State Department, as shown in its Web site.

Malacañang executives, clearly alarmed at the report, yesterday claimed that the report was false, while US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop failed to provide a categorical response on whether there was a slashing of military aid, saying instead that no US budget has been submitted as yet and that the budget is a “complex” and “negotiated” procedure by Congress, even when the Web site of the State Department showed the slashed figures, which the Washington Post reported was personally allocated by State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, country by country. The Congress Web site, moreover, showed a higher aid figure for the Philippines.

The US Web site showed that the foreign aid slashed by two-thirds its defense and police aid to the Philippines, with the report disclosing that Foreign Military Financing (FMF) has been reduced from nearly $30 million to only $11 million by fiscal year 2008, which will begin this September.

The International Military Exchange Training (IMET) program in the Philippines was also reduced from $2.9 million to $1.5 million for the same period.

US military assistance benefits some 160,000 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and supports the military’s modernization program or the Philippine Defense Reform (PDR).

The FMF is used for the procurement of military equipment from the U.S., including Excess Defense Articles, while the IMET pays for the sending and training of Philippine military officials to the U.S.

Also affected is the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) program for the Philippine National Police, which was down to $1.1 million from almost $2 million.

The US Embassy in Manila said “it is premature to talk about the 2008 budget when the US Congress has not passed the budget. It is a very complicated process and it is premature to talk (about this). We don’t want to speculate.”

Lussenhop said the budget process was ongoing, and that it is “misleading to pick a number because there no budget yet. It’s still being negotiated.”

But a check with the US Congress website, shows that the Senate appropriations committee almost tripled the State Department’s $11 million proposed military aid to the Philippines to $30 million, with the figures showing an increase of $18.9 million in US military assistance to the Philippines.

Lussenhop said the amount in military aid could not be used as a “shorthand benchmark of the quality” of the US-Philippine relations.

“It’s not about the numbers. It’s about the quality of the partnership, the activities, and the programs,” he said.

The Embassy spokesman also said cooperation with the Philippines will continue and stressed that the partnership between the two countries remains “strong” as he reiterated that one should not look at the figures but at the “strong RP-US relations.”

Reports said Rice had earmarked $26 billion for foreign assistance next year, with some $23 billion going to a “handful” of countries.

The remaining $3 billion, the report added, will be divided among 100 other US country allies.

Rice was said to have set five conditions in prioritizing US allocation of foreign aid. Countries that are aid recipients are assessed based on their performance in the peace and security arena, democratic governance, the justice system, reduction of poverty and the country’s human rights record.

Alarmed by the reported slash, which apparently caught Malacañang officials by surprise, the Palace quickly had the report verified by the Philippine Embassy in Washington which denied this slash through the Department of Foreign Affairs, and on to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who admitted to having been relieved that the aid slash report was false, saying that that the reduction in US aid would have a strong negative impact on the modernization campaign of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“It (aid slash) will have a lot of impact, because we’re talking of millions of dollars here. But I believe that the US government will have second thoughts because we are doing our best to address the security problems especially the issue of extra-judicial killings,” Ermita said.

Arroyo’s chief aide blamed some unidentified groups who he said were into lobbying activities to get the US government to cut its aid to the country.

“There are lobby groups pushing the military aid cut but we believe the US government will notice our efforts.. We have to do something, we will explain to the US government our efforts on extra judicial killings, that we are not condoning and tolerating these,” he said.

In a face-saving gesture, acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales yesterday had a different take, saying that the AFP will continue its modernization program with or without the military aid from foreign sources, particularly from the United States.

Gonzales expressed belief that the news report from the US which claimed that the American government has decided to cut the military aid to the AFP by as much as 70 percent due to the alleged failure of the Philippine government to curb the series of extra judicial killings in the country remains unverified.

“I don’t know the reason (for the US government to cut military aid to the Philippines). It is linking it to human rights. I don’t think so,” Gonzales said, adding that “let us not treat this as another propaganda issue.”

He stressed that whatever happens, “we will proceed with the upgrading program of the AFP. If there is no money coming from international donors, then we will use our own because it is something that we need to do,” he added.

The Philippines has been the recipient of military aid from its allied countries, particularly from the US, that come mostly in the form of excess defense hardware such as UH-1H helicopters, naval patrol boats, military transport vehicles and other ware equipment under the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty.

Philippine Army (PA) spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres also assured that it has “sufficient capability” to address insurgents and terror threats in the country despite the decision issued by the US to cut by nearly two-thirds its military and police aid.

“The present capability of the Armed Forces and the Philippine Army in particular can sufficiently (address) the threats presented by the insurgents, secessionists and other threats…whether or not the military aid is being increased or cut,” said Torres adding that “It would be best if that (aid) is available but then, if they so decided that a cut will be implemented, we have to make do with what we have right now.”

Torres, meantime, asked the public to help in pinpointing the rogue elements within the military ranks, saying that the military has its own system that addresses this issue.

Defense undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, in an ANC TV interview, was heard saying it was only Tuesday the Philippine government learned of the reduction in US military aid, which gave lie to Malacañang’s claim that the report on the aid slash was false.

Blancaflor reportedly believes that the changed climate in US politics may have had an effect especially that the Democratic Party is now the majority in US Congress.

It will be recalled that a US Senate subcommittee panel, pressured by Methodist bishops and other human rights activists based in the US and elsewhere, called for a hearing where several Filipino human rights activists were invited, and where the Arroyo administration sent its police and military representatives to the hearing where they were clearly not invited by the US panel.

The military and police contingent sent to the US by the Arroyo government was reported to have been given a tongue lashing by the Senate panel, saying its presence at the hearing was meant to intimidate the Philippine resource persons invited at the hearing.

The human rights abuses committed in the country under the Arroyo government, which are marked by several more extra-judicial killings have alarmed many countries in the West, especially the European Union which had already sent a fact-finding mission to look into the political murders, and what steps the Arroyo government has been taking to put an end to these killings and disappearances militants which are linked to Mrs. Arroyo’s security forces. With Michaela P. del Callar, Sherwin C. Olaes and Gina Peralta-Elorde