‘Philippine-US alliance has survived presidents’

MANILA, Philippines – The United States is pursuing all of its programs and projects in the Philippines despite stinging pronouncements from President Duterte and hopes the close ties will not change.

“We have heard the words spoken, of course, but we have not received official notification of any change,” US embassy press attaché Molly Koscina said in a discussion with The STAR
editors during a visit at the newspaper’s office on Friday.

“The US-Philippines relationship has spanned 11 US presidents,” Koscina said, noting the relationship continued to grow and she could not see any reason to change the way the two countries have been treating each other as allies.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama is the 12th American leader since the US and the Philippines established diplomatic relations in 1946.

Koscina was responding to a question on what the Philippines could expect as the US elects a new president next month.

On Manila’s side, Duterte has been saying he is not a fan of the US and that he wants to end the military exercises with the country’s traditional and longtime defense ally. But he later clarified he would not cut military ties with allies.

Duterte also complained that the US had been raising the issue of extrajudicial killings instead of helping him in his war against illegal drugs and hurled expletives at the State Department and Obama because of the issue.

He likewise said he would need space from the US to pursue peace talks with the communists and Muslim insurgents and that he would prefer to nurture ties with China and Russia.

But Koscina stressed: “We haven’t changed anything on our side. We are still here. We are still continuing all of our programs, we haven’t made any adjustments and our sincere hope is that the relationship will exist and continue as it is.”

Legal issue

Koscina would not comment on Duterte’s dare for the US, the United Nations and the European Union to come into the country and investigate the reported extrajudicial killings happening in the course of the drug war.

The administration maintains it is not behind the summary executions and that they are all under investigation.

What Koscina could only say was that the US has the Leahy Law prohibiting the State Department and the Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign military units violating human rights with impunity.

It is named after its principal sponsor, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who himself had spoken about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and how it could affect the grant of aid.

But Duterte retorted the country could survive without aid if it were to be given at the expense of the Filipinos’ dignity.

“It’s a legal issue,” Koscina said, noting the US would have to exercise due diligence in granting aid because they were using US taxpayers’ money.

“As you have heard our President (Obama) and our ambassador (Philip Goldberg) say, the United States believes in human rights and in due process. Our law says we cannot provide assistance to an organization that is violating human rights,” she said, adding they would be “cognizant” as to where the money should go because they would have to be legally responsible or act in accordance with law.

She said universal values that the US believed in must be upheld wherever they would go – human rights, due process, rule of law, among others.

Deep ties

Koscina also pointed out the US had been supporting the country’s drug war. “It is a long history of cooperation. So I think we have been here,” she said.

Aside from that, she said the US just brought in over the weekend 24 pallets of brand new equipment for counterterrorism efforts.

As to the perceived policy shift of the Duterte administration, Koscina said the “importance of the Filipino people” was being demonstrated through the multiple kinds of support the US had been giving the Philippines.

She gave as example the programs and projects of US Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Philippines covering education, health, entrepreneurship and micro-financing.

In Mindanao, she said over 1,000 women were able to start their own businesses because of their micro-financing program and that 50 to 100 Filipino professors in universities would earn their master’s degrees in the US through scholarships.

“So there is a breadth of programming that really is to the benefit of the Filipino people,” Koscina said, adding these would show how dedicated and committed the US was in terms of allotting resources and energy for the Filipinos.

“You all know how deep the relationship is, probably every single one of you has a relative in the United States. There are 3.5 million Filipinos in the US,” she said.

Koscina, who had been assigned in Shanghai, Havana and Beijing, said Manila was a top choice among possible destinations because of the long history of the two countries and cultural similarities that gave her a “comfortable connection.”

“I think the Filipino people are some of the nicest in the world,” Koscina said. “I am thrilled to be here because of the people.”

Asked about Filipinos’ support for the US, Koscina said they do not commission studies for such purpose but noted a Pew Research Center’s survey in July showing 92 percent of Filipinos held America in high regard.

“I think for the US, it is not a zero-sum game,” Koscina said, responding to a question on the country’s relations with the US and China.

She emphasized that even the US had very important trade relations with China and that the Americans and the Chinese were working on a multitude of issues.

So there is no reason for the Philippines not to do the same for the sake of greater stability in the region. “It’s not an either or,” Koscina said.

On defense and military cooperation, Koscina said “you need to look at the big picture” and that the Philippines was the number one recipient of US assistance in the region.

What can possibly drive the US to downgrade relations? “I don’t think I can answer that, is there a diplomatic definition for that? I’m not sure,” she said.

Is the Philippines worth fighting for? “We are allies. We have an agreement and the United States will stand by our allies and our agreement. We expect the Philippines to do so as well,” Koscina said.

Over Krispy Kreme donuts that she brought and the bibingka and puto bumbong that The STAR served, Koscina gave the impression that the US would not want to be distracted, notwithstanding Duterte’s reiterations of the Bud Dajo massacre whenever he expresses his anti-US sentiments.

“We really are focusing on the relationship that we have now and here and all of the programming that we have right now,” Koscina said.