JOINT
U.S. – PHILIPPINES MILITARY COOPERATION
(Speech
to the Republicans Abroad – Philippines at the Elks Club,
Manila Room 7th Floor, Corinthian Plaza Building, Paseo de Roxas,
Makati City)
1200 6 January
2003
Mr. Sears, Members of Republicans Abroad – Philippines,
distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Someone
once said, “…perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
He went on the say that “…the ripple effect of a leader’s
enthusiasm and optimism is awesome. So is the impact of cynicism
and pessimism. Leaders who whine and blame engender those same
behaviors among their colleagues.” He continued by stating
the he wasn’t talking about “…stoically accepting
organizational stupidity and performance incompetence with a ‘what,
me worry?’ smile.” What Colin Powell was talking about
was an individual’s or an organization’s ability to
have an attitude that permeates everything they or that person
does. This optimism is what makes changes occur, awesome goals
achieved, so that we can be the best. Optimism is what I bring
to table as we move forward in our military to military cooperation
with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. I believe that the AFP
has the potential to be an outstanding force despite appearances
and what is thought. However, to be a more efficient force, they
do not need just sophisticated arms and equipment. We need to
go back to the basics of education to help the AFP help themselves.
Let me take a few minutes to tell you about JUSMAG just to set
the stage today. Like many aspects of US involvement here in the
Philippines, we too have changed in the past few years. We are
smaller now, only about 75 US and AFP military, US civilians,
both DoD and contractor, and the backbone of the organization,
our civilian Foreign Service Nationals and Security Assistance
Support Personnel. We no longer have a JUSMAG compound or facilities
like the commissary. As Chief, JUSMAG I also hold two additional
titles, I am the Commander Pacific Command (PACOM) Representative,
Philippines (CDRPACOM Rep Philippines) and the Countering Terrorism
Liaison Officer (CT-LNO) for PACOM.
JUSMAG is responsible for all aspects of Security Assistance here
in the Philippines, from Foreign Military Financing, Foreign Military
Sales, Excess Defense Articles, Presidential Drawdowns to keeping
accountability of all of the equipment we’ve ever sold,
given or brought to the AFP. At PACOM, I am responsible to the
J4 (Logistics and Engineering).
As CDRPACOM Rep Philippines, we are responsible for all of the
engagement activities with the Philippines, including exercises
and strategic planning with the AFP, and defense development campaign
planning with the Department of National Defense. At PACOM, I
am responsible to the J5 (Plans and Policy).
Under my
Countering Terrorism hat, we work closely and in support of the
law enforcement agencies in the embassy and provide support to
the AFP’s Anti-Crime Task Force (ACTAF). At PACOM, I am
responsible to the J3 (Operations).
JUSMAG has
made giant strides in assisting the Department of National Defense
(DND) and the AFP over the last year and even more so in the last
four months. We’re about to continue where we left off in
Southern Mindanao and Basilan by training two more Light Reaction
Companies (LRC), four Light Infantry Battalions (LIB), Night Vision
Goggle (NVG) training for UH1H crew members and training in a
variety of other disciplines like NCO leadership, psychological
operations, civil affairs, and intelligence. This will occupy
much of our time over the next year or so but that is not all
there is to do.
However,
before I continue with what we plan to do, I believe that it is
important to illustrate from whence we came. As you know, the
time immediately following the return of the bases to Philippine
government control proved to be a boon in some respects and a
curse in other ways to both the Philippines and the US. Militarily,
it was a temporary setback for America but we eventually worked
through the dilemma of no bases in the Philippines by having Prepositioned
Afloat equipment and coming up with a different Southeast Asia
strategy. We strengthened our ties with other Asian partners and
got over having anything here at all. We reduced Security Assistance
funding under Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to almost zero
and went from one of the largest security cooperation budgets
in the world to one of the lowest. At one point in the mid-1990s,
there was zero funding for the AFP.
We are in
a new relationship with the Philippines. Over the last three years,
the security assistance funding has slowly increased and our military
to military engagement grows as well. We’ve revived the
Mutual Defense Board and conferences, hold at least 18 bilateral
exercises in the country and are looking forward to the Philippines
participating in multilateral exercises with allies and friends.
These exercises include large scale exercises like Balikatan(s)
and smaller exercises consisting of small unit tactics, air operations,
maintenance, naval operations, intelligence fusion, and some engineer
projects.
We are also
enhancing our humanitarian and civil affairs assistance and working
closely with USAID and NGOs to help the less fortunate and the
poor communities in the provinces. You might ask isn’t that
a curious combination, NGOs, USAID, and JUSMAG? I submit that
it is indeed only slightly unusual. On the other hand, why not?
Moreover, why haven’t we worked closer before? We all have
the same goal of helping the Philippines become a stronger nation.
Why not coordinate, cooperate and concentrate our efforts?
Our cooperation
with the AFP and DND is probably one of the best in the Pacific.
As you know, I recently had the privilege of signing on behalf
of the US the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement or MLSA (really
called an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement or ACSA).
This is an important agreement since it now makes it easier for
both the AFP and the US military to provide reciprocal logistics
support, supplies and services to each other anywhere in the world.
This is especially important as the Philippines begins to participate
in peacekeeping missions and other multilateral exercises. The
MLSA took over a year to negotiate and you may have noticed that
it even generated some controversy along the way.
JUSMAG has the largest International Military Educational Training
(IMET) program in Asia and is the second largest in the world
at $2.4 Million. Over 160 AFP personnel of all ranks to include
civilians attend schooling in the United States.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, we are about to begin the follow-on
security assistance modules where Joint RP/US mobile training
teams will train three Light Reaction Companies (LRC), four Light
Infantry Battalions, provide Intelligence Fusion training, Night
Vision Device aviation training and a number of program of instruction
or schoolhouse training. We expect all of this training to start
next month. Funding for this came out of the FY02 Supplemental
of $25 Million. I will not bore you with the details of this program
but can elaborate in detail to any questions you may have later.
We are equipping, training and advising the AFP at five different
locations throughout the Philippines with all efforts devoted
to counter terrorist capabilities.
JUSMAG is also assisting DND in some of their projects. We recently
held two seminars and workshops on Planning Programming and Budgeting
System PPBS) and the Defense Acquisition System advising them
on best practices for structuring their procurement systems into
a comprehensive national system instead of the piecemeal structure
as it currently exists. Australia joined us in both of these efforts.
In this light, we advised and assisted in developing a future
AFP Defense Acquisition Corps. Initial fruits of this labor is
the new office at DND at the undersecretary level—the office
will oversee all acquisition actions at DND and AFP while also
having responsibility for modernization issues for the AFP.
As far as exercises go, there are plenty of them from the big
annual Joint exercise like Balikatan 03 to smaller scale ones
like Balance Piston.
There is
plenty going on in the equipment side as well. A contractor is
about to start the refurbishing of the ex-USS Cyclone in Baltimore.
This boat, when completed this summer will serve as the mother
ship for smaller patrol craft and will give the Philippine Navy
the means to engage the enemy and rule territorial waters. Excess
Defense Articles (EDA) this past year has helped the Philippines
continue to fight their enemies. Some EDA provided to the AFP
are one C130, five UH-1H helicopters, 300 2-1/2 T trucks, and
15,000 M16 rifles. All of these have proven instrumental in supporting
the AFP’s war on terrorism in Southern Mindanao.
We continue
with our security cooperation and engagement with the AFP in 2003,
concentrating on sustainment issues like equipment maintenance
and civil affairs and humanitarian assistance. We will also work
closely with the Philippines in developing their peace keeping
capabilities and support environmental security as they begin
to move toward developing a capacity to cope with disasters especially
since emergency management is a regional issue. This does not
mean that the internal threat is less simply because of the New
Year—it is not. GEN Santiago, Chief of Staff, AFP recently
stated that they will concentrate on their internal threats and
leave the external ones to others (he actually said to the US
and China). We expect an increase in our military financing from
the $44 million that we provided last year to perhaps double that
this year.
Overall,
we have a larger presence here in the Philippines, perhaps not
in terms of bases, since we have no plans nor any desire to put
bases here but in terms of our military to military engagement.
We are moving to a more mature relationship that of respected
close allies and strategic partners between the Philippines and
the United States.
The future
is bright for US-RP military relationships. Our security cooperation
is moving forward towards one where we help each other. We have
always worked well together. Now we are exploring ways to not
only enhance that working relationship but to take that relationship
to the next level. These are exciting times and I for one am happy
to be in the Philippines helping take the US-RP military relationship
forward.
Thank you.
Travel to the Republic of the Philippines
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