PH to receive P3.2-B additional security assistance from US

Amid worries over China’s militarization of the South China Sea, the United States is bent on maintaining and strengthening economic and security ties with its allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Philippines, a visiting senior official of the US Department of State said on Wednesday.

Largest chunk of $300M

Walter Douglas, the deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs and diplomacy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Washington had earmarked $60 million (about P3.2 billion) as additional security assistance to the Philippines.

The funding for the Philippines, he said, is the “largest chunk” of the $300-million US security aid for the Indo-Pacific area announced recently by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“It’s a recognition of the long-term partnership we’ve had with the Philippines on the security front,” Douglas said at a press conference arranged in Makati City by the Stratbase ADR Institute for Strategic and International Studies.

Douglas said the security aid to the Philippines would come in the next few years.