A good year in PH-US relations

IT may have seemed at times in these last two years that the Philippines and the United States were moving away from each other as President Duterte declared an independent foreign policy and sought new alliances with China and Russia.

He had harsh words for former President Barack Obama over the latter’s comment on human rights in relation to the Philippines’ anti-drugs campaign. He threatened to end the annual joint military exercises with the US, although these somehow continued through the years.

Then at the ASEAN leaders’ meeting in Manila in November, 2017, President Duterte got along well with new American President Donald Trump. US Ambassador Sung Kim and then US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a big role in normalizing and strengthening PH-US ties, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano said.

In 2018, the US transferred over 11.8 billion in military equipment to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Ambassador Kim said, as they continued their coordination in the fight against terrorism, protection of freedom of navigation, and provision of humanitarian aid during disasters.

Last September 29, in a speech at the 116th anniversary of the Balangiga Encounter in Samar, President Duterte said, “There are so many factors involved, but I’d rather be friendly to them now because, aside from these episodes of, I said, sad incidents, overall, I think the Americans also redeemed themselves a lot.” He acknowledged US aid throughout the years, especially during the Marawi siege. “I will not say they are our saviors, but they are our allies and they have helped us,” he said.

Shortly afterwards, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced that the US government had decided to return the Balangiga Bells which American soldiers had seized as war booty 117 years earlier. The bells were finally back in time to ring at the Simbang Gabi in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, last December 16.

The return of the bells is of great importance in Philippine-American relations. So many Philippine officials, including President Fidel V. Ramos in the 1990s, had appealed to the US for their return. For, as long as they were kept and displayed as war booty, they remained reminders of the bitter conflict between the two nations at the turn of the century. The return of the Balangiga Bells this month, the ambassador said, is undoubtedly the biggest success of the year.

It has been truly a good year in our relations with the United States in so many areas – in government, in economics and trade, in military cooperation, and in people-to-people affairs, with the return of the Balangiga Bells as the most welcome event of the year in our enduring relations.