US refocusing PH aid to maritime security

THE United States (US) will continue its aid program for the Philippines, but the focus will shift from drug control to maritime security, according to US State Department spokesman John Kirby. This is only to be expected as drug control has become a sensitive issue between The Philippines and US officials.

When President Duterte lashed out at President Obama after the latter expressed concern over possible human rights violations in the death of thousands in the government’s antidrug campaign, American officials responded with expected equanimity, reiterating America’s “ironclad” assurance of its defense and security pledge to the Philippines.

American assistance to Philippine law enforcement, however, will now shift from narcotics control to maritime security and to human rights training for the Philippine National Police. “We decided that the prudent thing to do was to refocus how that assistance was being spent,” State Department spokesman Kirby said.

The US has a commitment to help the Philippines in the amount of $180 million from October, 2016, to September, 2017. Of the scheduled $5-million aid for law enforcement units, the US shifted $4.5 million to the Coast Guard and $500,000 to human rights and internal reform efforts. The Philippines is said to be the third largest Asian recipient of US military aid after Afghanistan and Pakistan. This aid will continue despite the President’s recent efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on the US, but with a shift to maritime safety and human rights.

In the coming months and years, we may expect similar shifts in US aid to the Philippines, guided, as spokesman Kirby said, by a sense of prudence on the part of the US. We have already seen its readiness to shift to new directions in the US State Department’s acceptance of the Philippine proposal that henceforth, all joint field exercises between the two nation’s forces will be redirected to fighting terrorism rather than preparing for an invasion by an aggressor nation.

These are shifts in direction and focus in our relations with the US. We trust that the general relations between the two countries will remain friendly and close, even as we venture towards new friendships with other nations like Russia and China.