The United States and the Philippines:
Partnership in Advancing Our Mutual Security

Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone
Lecture at the National Defense College of the Philippines
Camp Aguinaldo, Manila
August 26, 2002

Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat. Good Afternoon. President of the National Defense College of the Philippines Commodore Carlos Augustin; Vice President for Research, Commodore Francisco Tolin; Ms. De Guzman; distinguished NDCP faculty and students; colleagues and guests:

It is a humbling experience to address any public policy topic before such a distinguished and expert group of leaders in so many fields of government and public administration. Like my own country’s National Defense University, the National Defense College of the Philippines takes its pick of the very best and most promising professionals throughout the agencies of Government, both civilian and military, and aims to develop the skills of these current and future leaders to advance the cause of national security.

Therefore, I address you, and our guests from beyond NDCP here today, as colleagues -- fellow practitioners who have chosen one form or another of public service for our life’s work. Whatever our country, or our agency of government, or our private interest in public policy, we share an idealistic dedication to the betterment of our societies and of humankind. In choosing so to dedicate our talents and our lives, we have opted for the deeper moral and psychic rewards of public service, over the more visible and material benefits that may accrue to other professions.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the historic and cultural and psychological and even emotional reasons cited by Commodore Agustin just now, I certainly agree this is a very special place to be the United States Ambassador. It’s a very unique relationship. I find it’s also a time for great optimism about the relationship and great confidence in this country and in its future, for reasons that I will go into. Some thirteen hundred people work every day at our Embassy here in Manila, and all of us work to advance one or several of three interconnected and mutually reinforcing objectives for our two countries:

the first is to strengthen United States - Philippines mutual security;
second, to build our interdependent economic prosperity;
and third, to provide a wide range of vital official services to the citizens of both our countries.
We strive for excellence in all three goals. However, as we are meeting today here in the National Defense College, which is dedicated to the cause of national security, I will focus my remarks primarily on that element of our mission here.
I propose to you that the security partnership between the United States of America and the Republic of the Philippines has never been stronger or healthier than it is today, nor has it ever been more broadly-based or, I believe, as well appreciated by both sides. Yet, shortfalls in this appreciation persist on both sides. In the United States, there is nothing like the breadth and the depth of popular knowledge of the Philippines to compare to Filipinos’ knowledge of America. And on the Philippines’ side, the negative as well as the positive legacies of the past history with the United States have persisted, in many instances and among some sectors of opinion, long past the point of obsolescence. I submit, therefore, that much of my task as the American Ambassador to the Philippines is to help revitalize and to carry forward our relationship to full maturity, not only as regards our mutual security, but also for our shared stakes in each other’s prosperity.

For, though some may wistfully prefer otherwise, and others may stridently hold to the contrary, no longer can our relationship be characterized as “paternal.” Rather, it is now, and must remain, fraternal. It is a relationship that is now in greater balance, among equal partners – both of us, now and forever democracies -- who recognize each other’s interests, aspirations, and contributions to the relationship.

The United States - Philippines partnership had already begun its revival under the new leadership of our two Presidents, who took office on the same day only a year and a half ago. It took the tragedy of September 11, however, to help many Americans understand the value of our partnerships around the world -- and I believe no other American relationship was more truly due for fresh appreciation than that with the Republic of the Philippines.

Though American hostages had been held by terrorists with international links for over a year before, only after September 11 did we appreciate the fact that the Philippines, for over a generation, had been facing terrorism inspired and backed from abroad with people, propaganda, funds, training, and even explosives and weaponry. In retrospect, it is remarkable that we, as treaty allies, had done so little together to counter what had been for so long, and is now so obviously, a common menace to both countries and to our partners in the region. If it is true, as some people hold, that September 11 was a “wake-up call” for the United States, then it is also true that Filipinos were already painfully alert to the threat of international terrorism in their country.

Both our countries recognize the foreign fuel stoking the modern terrorist threat. Nevertheless, our two Presidents have recognized that terrorism is incubated in domestic poverty. The basis of our current collaboration against internationally-backed terrorism in the Philippines, then, is no longer military force, or not military force alone, but rather a much broader strategy that comprises economic inputs and reforms, law enforcement, and intelligence cooperation, along with updated forms of military force in appropriate circumstances when all else fails. Let me touch briefly on each of these elements of the US-Philippines cooperation within the larger global war on terrorism.

First, the military dimension:
The military dimension of our cooperation is only one element in our broader cooperation against terrorism, but it certainly draws the most attention from the news media. The movements of uniformed men, machines, weaponry, and aircraft make for dramatic television and news photos. These actions stir a rich mix of emotions, especially among a citizenry that vividly recalls more than its share of war, of domestic armed violence, and the stresses and stimulations of hosting a large (even if friendly and allied) foreign military presence, until only half a generation ago.

I said that our relationship is now among equal partners, and in greater balance -- a fraternal rather than a paternal model. This is most evident, I think, in the military dimension of our relationship. That means, among other things, that the U.S. bases in the Philippines are gone for good, and neither side wants – or, even more certainly, needs -- them to return. Some may recall with fondness or nostalgia the days of a major American military presence, while a few others stridently decry even temporary and small-scale joint training exercises. But for better or worse – and, I believe far, far for the better -- the issue of “American bases” was resolved, once and for all, a decade ago. This was accomplished by the free working of the democratic processes in both countries, and there can be no turning back the march of history. The Visiting Forces Agreement of 1999 effectively updated our Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951. It is clear that both sides are not only satisfied but also gratified by the current level of cooperation under these documented agreements. We seek no change in the nature or legal parameters of our alliance, but only to improve our training cooperation and its benefits to both sides.

Let me briefly sketch some examples of the military dimension of our cooperation these days:

We have intensified our recurrent annual cycle of joint training.
The most notable example was the highly successful Balikatan 02-1 exercise, just concluded, which built upon our previous training of one Light Reaction Company that was deployed just this past weekend to Jolo.
At SouthCom, our joint programs are continuing in civil affairs and humanitarian projects, intelligence fusion, and advanced command and control techniques.
Current plans are to train up more Light Reaction Companies and battalions, in such skills as night flying and night fighting.
There are other joint exercises and programs conducted around the country every year. NDCP itself supports some of these, such as the recent SAGIP program which was devoted to disaster relief.
We have increased the resources devoted to training. Our Foreign Military Financing was increased about ten times over from 2001 to 2002, to almost $20 million; while our IMET, that’s International Military Education and Training, was increased to $2 million, making it the second largest IMET program in the world. And President Bush, backed by the United States Congress, has indicated he will slightly increase that amount for 2003.
The Philippines is the number one recipient of Excess Defense Articles in Asia. We have provided some $148 million in excess defense articles, including C-130 and UH-1 aircraft, three patrol ships, 400 trucks, and 15,000 M-16 rifles.

Let me turn to the Law Enforcement and Intelligence dimensions of our cooperation:
For all the attention on the military aspects of the global war against terrorism, it is remarkable that none of the retrospective analysis regarding how we might have prevented the attacks of September 11 is focusing on military measures. Rather, we have learned that the terrorists of al-Qa’eda, who sought to wreak systemic harm on the United States and our allies, exploited weaknesses in our laws, our enforcement systems, our intelligence and its exploitation. We found that we had not been bringing to bear on our national security, all the information and other resources at our disposal across the lines of the varying agencies of the United States government and even within our individual agencies of government.

We are striving now to correct such internal deficiencies before terrorists can again exploit our vulnerabilities. And we are eager for our allies, such as the Philippines, to benefit from the lessons that we have so painfully learned from our own mistakes. Hence we are cooperating in the fields of law, law enforcement, and intelligence as never before.

The March visit to Manila and elsewhere in this region of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller signaled new momentum in our law enforcement cooperation. For example, in this year alone, hundreds of Filipino officers from numerous agencies have participated in counter terrorism training programs in the United States, at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok, and right here at NDCP.

Indeed, President Agustin reminded me that he is heading to the United States on one such program for senior officials just this coming month.

We have had a vigorous debate in our country over the proper balance between protecting individual freedoms from unwarranted government intrusion, versus providing the law enforcement tools to protect us from terrorists who would exploit our freedoms. One historic result was The Patriot Act, which modestly strengthened the powers of our law enforcement agencies. We recently brought senior Philippines officials to the United States to study this and related legislation, so that they could better inform the democratic debate that is shaping up here in the Philippines, as President Arroyo prepares to introduce her own priority anti-terrorism bill.

In the United States we also accelerated our Senate ratification processes to become a party to all 12 of the United Nations’ Conventions against terrorism. Now we are working with all our friends and allies around the world to do the same. The Philippines, I’m glad to say, has signed 11 of these 12 counter-terrorism conventions and as of March 2002 had ratified seven of them.

Acting under United Nations Security Council Resolutions since September 11, we have strengthened our cooperation with other countries against money laundering by al-Qa’eda and other international terrorist organizations. The Philippines passed milestone Anti-Money Laundering legislation at the end of last September. We have been proud to support the new Anti-Money Laundering Council established under that law by providing expertise, computers, software, training, and intelligence. With some key amendments expected under the President’s proposed new anti-terrorism legislation, the Republic of the Philippines can confer upon itself world-standard legal protection against both terrorist and criminal money laundering. Meanwhile, our law enforcement agencies are cooperating with their counterparts in the Republic of the Philippines to take action against specific terrorist and criminal money laundering cases, as current legal authority permits.

In another effort to choke off the money supply to terrorists, acting under United States law, as I think you all know, we’ve taken legal action in direct support of our Philippines ally in the fight against terrorism. We have acted to block the assets in the United States of the New People’s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines. As you know, the Dutch and the British have joined us in doing so. No longer will the NPA/CPP be able to use the international banking system to move funds extorted from poor Filipinos and businesses in the Philippines to support the safe and comfortable exile in the Netherlands or the UK of those exhorting “urban guerilla” action. Nor will the NPA/CPP be able legally to move funds to the Philippines from those European countries that stand with us to underwrite their strident calls for the destruction of the Philippines’ national infrastructure.

With hundreds of thousands of travelers between the Philippines and the United States each year, we recognize that strengthening the border controls of the Philippines is vital to the security of our own borders. Hence we collaborate extensively with the Republic of the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration in intelligence exchange, in operations, and in training. The largest service component of our own Embassy is our consular section, whose operations include visas. In fact, this is the United States’ second largest consular operation in the world after Mexico. Its effectiveness in collaborating with the RP Bureau of Immigration and other agencies is directly related, therefore, to our national security.

Not all of our joint law enforcement and intelligence successes have made the newspapers, nor should they. Suffice to say, both our countries have discovered major vulnerabilities in our financial systems and in our border protection which international terrorists and ordinary criminals had been exploiting against us and which they can no longer so easily exploit.

I noted at the outset that the mission of the United States Embassy in cooperation with the Republic of the Philippines has three major interconnected goals: Security, Prosperity, and Service. Prosperity and security are directly linked. Our two Presidents repeatedly have emphasized the need to advance the war on poverty if we are to advance the war on terrorism. This common understanding of the strategic facts is the basis for much of our bilateral conversation. When Secretary Powell met with President Macapagal-Arroyo recently here in Manila, they noted the congruence of President Arroyo’s “Strong Republic” platform, as articulated in her State of the Nation Address, with the “Millenium Challenge” articulated by President Bush in Washington on March 14 of this year.

President Bush announced in advance of the Monterrey Summit of that month that he would ask Congress for an additional $5 billion in economic development assistance over the next three years --- beyond the current levels of assistance -- for those developing countries that could meet three criteria:

First, advancing good government by strengthening the rule of law and ending corruption;
Second, investing in people’s health and education;
Third, opening economic opportunity by removing barriers to trade, investment, and economic growth.

President Bush pointed out that in countries that accomplish these objectives foreign economic assistance can draw in even more private investment. Whereas in those countries that fail to pursue these goals foreign assistance can be wasted and fail to help countries grow their way out of poverty.

The Bush Administration has not yet forwarded a request to Congress under this bold plan, and we can not prejudge which countries may be in the President’s first request. But the United States is already devoting substantial economic assistance to the Arroyo Administration’s war on poverty. This year the United States Agency for International Development alone, among several U.S. agencies, will have invested some $74 million in grants to expand livelihoods for former combatants in this country, to spread access to health care and family planning, to protect the environment, and to support a host of good government initiatives, including the Anti-Money Laundering Council. We have also provided another $27 million mostly in grants, but also low-interest loans and debt reduction, for forest conservation, for agricultural technology transfer, and for educational exchanges. We expect we will provide another $15 million in economic development assistance thanks to the recent supplemental appropriation signed by President Bush.

Let me cite just one way that such economic assistance directly supports the campaign against terrorism. Over $40 million of our development assistance is devoted to Mindanao, the poorest part of the Philippines and the region most affected by terrorism. Ten percent of that funding has supported the “Livelihood Enhancement and Peace” (LEAP) Program. Since its inception a few years ago, LEAP has helped some 13,000 former combatants of the Moro National Liberation Front earn their livings as small farmers, fishermen, and seaweed growers. Their accomplishments have been dramatic, and we hope to produce a documentary film that will inspire other people around the world to follow the examples that the people of Mindanao have set.

In conclusion and to sum up, the United States and the Philippines have been cooperating across the board to strengthen our common defense against international terrorism. That cooperation extends well beyond the traditional and more visible military training, to include great advances in law enforcement, intelligence, and financial forensics. And our cooperation in the war on poverty has also received fresh resources from the United States and fresh impetus from both countries’ leaders.

Of course, much more must be done. New legislation, substantial additional resources, and continued strong political leadership are urgently necessary to accomplish the mission not only in the Philippines and the United States, but also worldwide. But as we approach the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America, to acknowledge the enormity of the task before us does not in the least diminish the magnitude of what we, in the Philippines, have accomplished together in improving our mutual security.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat.