PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expanded his predecessor's move to put the Philippines in the cross-hairs of China's People Liberation Army's nuclear missiles by giving the US military full access to nine military and civilian facilities obviously intended to be used against their rival in Asia.

However, the Philippines has been an underpaid puppet. The US economic and military aid has even been reduced, after Marcos implemented the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that authorized the use by the US military of nine Philippine bases. From an annual average in such aid ("obligation" basis, in 2016 US dollars) of $384 million from 2016 to 2021, or roughly during President Duterte's administration, US military and economic assistance averaged only $219 million from 2022 to 2024, or during Marcos' watch, according to data from the US State Department.

The US did not see fit to reciprocate the surrender of our sovereignty by way of increasing its economic and military aid to us. In fact, we are ranked only 26th in terms of military and economic aid in 2022, receiving only $341 million, a fraction of the over $1 billion received by, among others, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan, countries which do not host US military bases.

Indeed, that the EDCA camps would undertake humanitarian missions during calamities proved to be a total lie in the last devastating typhoon Carina: American personnel or their vaunted amphibious trucks were nowhere to be seen.

Practically mocking the Marcos administration as a pathetic, gullible puppet, both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last July 30 claimed that the US government was "allocating an additional $500 million military financing to the Philippines." Blinken said it was a "once-in-a-generation investment" to help modernize our military, while Austin said "this level of funding is unprecedented."

Those statements are a lie.

I suspect the two spread such lies in the hope that with the powerful US propaganda apparatus, this would be widely believed to cover up for the reduction in American economic and military aid, despite the huge concession given to the Americans in the form of nine camps to be used by the military whenever they please, a violation of our Constitution.

Indeed, even two anti-US imperialist writers have quoted the figure, although in a critical way, that "$500 million" is a small price to pay for our sovereignty.

Marcos swallowed hook, line and sinker the two officials claim and thanked a delegation from the US Congress last week for $500 million in foreign aid, which is unlikely to be passed into law before the US Congress adjourns on December 20.

US Senate

Blinken and Austin, in their lie over a $500 million economic and military aid to the Philippines, were misreporting on US Senate Bill 4097 (called the "Philippines Enhanced Resilience Act" or the "PERA Act"), which indeed called for giving the Philippines $500 million under the Foreign Military Financing Program to buy military equipment manufactured by American firms.

However, the bill was filed on April 10, 2024, and after reading, was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. The committee, though, has not met even once to consider the bill — which practically means it is dead on arrival at that committee.

The only way an additional military financing allocation could be given to the Philippines is through House of Representatives (HR) Bill 8771, titled "Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025." The bill was passed on June 28, 2024, by a close of 212 to 200 votes and received by the Senate on July 8, 2024, which has to pass it to be signed by the President to become law.

However, the bill allocates $500 million not to the Philippines but to Taiwan. The one for the Philippines is just $180.3 million, $100 million of which is for the US "foreign military financing program" and $80 million for "development assistance."

The country getting the biggest allocation is Israel, which will get $3.3 billion in military financing grants, indeed another proof of Prof. John Mearsheimer's unforgettable statement in his 2007 book The Israel Lobby: "The US and Israel are tied at the hip." The second biggest, amounting to $1.65 billion, is for Jordan, of which $400 million will be for government budget support and $425 million for the US "foreign military financing program." This obviously is America's bribe for Jordan to be its ally in the region and one of the few Arab countries that signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Allocations

The Philippines and Taiwan allocations are provided for in the bill's Section 7043.

"Paragraph G:

"Philippines. – Of the funds appropriated by this Act under titles III and IV, not less than $180,300,000 shall be made available for assistance for the Philippines, of which not less than $80,300,000 shall be made available under the heading 'Development Assistance' and not less than $100,000,000 shall be made available under the heading "Foreign Military Financing Program."

"Paragraph H, subparagraph 2:

"Taiwan. – Foreign military financing program. Of the funds appropriated by this Act under the heading 'Foreign Military Financing Program,' not less than $500,000,000 (increased by $10,000,000) shall be made available for assistance for Taiwan."

It is unlikely that HR 8771 has been amended by the US Senate to significantly increase the allocations for the Philippines. If it were, Blinken and Austin would have reported so. Despite our last two presidents bending over to allow the use of nine sites as military camps, the Philippines is not just that important to the US. Or, they think that Marcos is such a pushover and an ass-licker he need not be given a bigger allocation for military financing. Anyway, the Americans may be thinking the US military can use the EDCA sites to respond quickly to Chinese aggression.

HR 877 was passed by the House of Representatives last July 8 and received in the Senate the same day, which, however, has so far taken no action to approve it.

This is the second time this year that the US "$500 million military financing" was reported to be on the verge of being allocated to the Philippines but wasn't. Our House of Representatives on April 23 issued a press release: "The extensive lobbying efforts of the Philippine delegation, led by Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, paid off as the US House of Representatives approved an $8.1 billion emergency aid package for key allies in the Indo-Pacific, including the Philippines."

Romualdez

The Manila Standard, the Romualdez-owned newspaper, the next day ran an article with the headline, "US $8.1-b aid bill includes $500m to PH." However, there was no such $500 million allocation for the Philippines in that aid package. It was all Romualdez's wishful thinking.

That $8.1 billion aid signed by US President Biden into law last February 23 allocated $3.3 billion to build up the US "submarine infrastructure" in the Pacific and $2 billion in foreign military financing programs for Taiwan. There was no allocation at all for the Philippines.

There was a last-minute attempt by California 48th District Rep. Darrell Issa to include an amendment to the Indo-Pacific Security Bill for the US State Department to allocate $500 million in foreign military financing to the Philippines. Issa's amendment, however, was not included in the bill that the House sent to the Senate, which approved it, along with the bills relating to Ukraine and Israel, and transmitted to President Biden, who signed it into law.

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