By Atty. Howie Calleja
According to the US Embassy in Manila, the Philippines is the largest recipient of U.S. military assistance in the Indo-Pacific region. Since 2015, the United States has delivered more than Php57 billion ($1.14 billion) worth of planes, armored vehicles, small arms, and other military equipment and training to the Philippines.
Added to this, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced early this week an additional $500 million of military aid to the Philippines from the Biden Administration which will further help bolster the defense alliance between the two nations while the Philippine military is grappling with aggressive actions by Chinese ships in the South China Sea.
Such an alliance-building mechanism is a hallmark of US President Biden’s foreign policy, especially in Europe and Asia, where different sets of alliances are aimed at countering or deterring military action by two nuclear-armed superpowers that are partners with each other — Russia and China. And, as expected China warned the Philippines that it risks “greater insecurity for itself” after the United States announced $500 million in additional military funding to the Philippines in the face of Beijing’s mounting assertiveness.
Furthermore, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian alluded to the “destabilizing” nature of such acceptance of aid implying that, “wooing countries from outside the region to provoke confrontation in the South China Sea will only undermine regional stability and aggravate tensions. Trying to introduce external forces to protect its own security will only lead to greater insecurity for itself, and it might even become someone else’s pawn”.
Well, excuse me … destabilizing for who? The only aggressor here is China, and such a move to strengthen our military capability is only destabilizing to the destabilizer — China. Our alliances are our own business — and not theirs. Alliances strengthen nations; and we are in an international community where alliances whether military or economic are needed to strengthen ties among nations.
What is destabilizing are not our alliances and/or support from other “like-minded” sovereign states but Chine’s continued illegal occupation of Philippine territory and encroachment in our West Philippine Sea. So, I am honestly not sorry if China feels uncomfortable that the $500 million in U.S. military financing would include funding for reinforcing the Philippine navy’s capability. And that about $125 million would be used for constructions and other improvements in parts of Philippine military bases to be occupied by U.S. forces under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. What they call destabilization is actually stabilization for us!
