Friendship without benefits

Friendship without benefits | Daily Tribune

Many people are still looking for the promises America made to help the Philippines.

Observers say they fail to see any help coming from the United States; instead, they see the several US military bases that have been installed all over the country.

Foreign military bases in the Philippines violate the Philippine Constitution, but both US and Philippine officials have repeatedly told the public that the US military sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) are for disaster relief operations.

Why are Philippine officials essentially surrendering the sovereignty of the Philippines at no benefit to the Filipino people? To make things worse, Philippine government officials are now telling Filipinos that we should be ready to sacrifice ourselves for America’s war.

If my memory is still working well, one time the Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff himself, General Romeo Brawner, even said that in a war Filipinos should be ready to hold the frontlines for 20 to 30 days before America arrives. What are all the US military bases in the Philippines for?

Officials like Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro, Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela, and Ambassador Babe Romualdez boast of an ironclad alliance with America, but it is nowhere to be seen when calamities hit the Philippines.

Recently, another betrayal. After the US promised “to help” the Philippines upgrade its military, a US congressional commission recommended that Taiwan help finance the upgrade of the EDCA sites in the Philippines to strengthen Washington’s ability to defend the self-ruled island in the event of an attack by China.

Here’s the catch: any payments by Taiwan will not go to the Philippines but directly to the US. The funding would be routed through the US Foreign Military Sales program.

Recall that during the visit of the US war secretary in March 2025, some officials touted that the US will help the Philippine military modernize to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars — only later to reveal this would be in the form of loans, which even Philippine Ambassador to the US Babe Romualdez admitted we could not afford.

According to reports, the weapons that Washington will sell to the Philippines are meant to help Taiwan. Why then are we paying for a war that has no benefit to us Filipinos?

Why are our officials quick to put the Philippines under more debt for military weapons but not for economic and social development?

After giving the US additional bases, and basically full access to the Philippines, President Marcos was able to get only a one-percent reduction in the Trump-imposed tariffs, which was actually two-percent higher than the original rate proposed.

Who is egging our officials to provoke the dragon in the neighborhood? Who will pay the price when the dragon finally decides to breathe fire on the provocateurs?