By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter

A $500-MILLION (P29.3 billion) aid from the United States to boost the Philippines’ military capabilities is unlikely to provoke China and worsen tensions in the South China Sea, according to the Philippine Senate president.

“I do not think this will provoke or agitate China because strengthening one’s own military… to keep the peace is the right and obligation of every country,” Senate President Francis G. Escudero said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This shows that we (the US and Philippines) are indeed friends and, more importantly, equal partners in maintaining peace and a rules-based approach to differences and disagreements,” he added.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III announced the new military funding on Tuesday in Manila after their 2 + 2 ministerial dialogue with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo and Defense Secretary Gilberto Eduardo C. Teodoro, Jr.

US President Joseph R. Biden, who signed the National Security Supplemental bill into law in April, had said it would help American allies “defend themselves against threats to their sovereignty and to the lives and freedom of their citizens.”

In April, Republican Senator Bill Hagerty and Democrat Senator Tim Kaine pushed a bill that increased US military aid for the Philippines to $500 million from $40 million over five fiscal years through 2029.

Mr. Escudero said boosting Philippine military forces would help secure peace in the region and would not ignite conflict.

US Senator Christopher Coons told Philippine media in May that he did not sign the bill as a co-sponsor due to “some debate about the absorption capacity of the Philippine military.”

The Philippines, one of the weakest in the world in terms of military capability, is important to Washington’s efforts to push back against China, which claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety.

In a separate statement, Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri said the country’s outdated military equipment has held it back from establishing a “credible defense posture.”

“We gladly welcome all military assistance from our close allies and like-minded countries such as the US, Japan and the European Union,” he said.

The Senate in December passed a bill that seeks to boost the country’s defense program through investments in local defense equipment manufacturing. The measure will give the Department of National Defense P1 billion in seed funding.

China claims more than 80% of the South China Sea based on a 1940s map, which a United Nations-backed arbitration court voided in 2016 for being illegal.

The Philippines has failed to enforce the ruling and has since filed hundreds of protests over what it calls encroachment and harassment by China’s coast guard and its vast fishing fleet.

Both countries during a meeting in Manila on July 2 reached a “provisional arrangement” for Philippine resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal.

They resumed talks to ease tensions in the waterway after accusing each other of raising tensions in disputed shoals and reefs in the South China Sea.

But Senate Minority Floor Leader Aquilino D. Pimentel III said the government should focus on getting investments in agriculture instead of military hardware.

“Why doesn’t America make an unprecedented investment in our agriculture sector?” he said in a statement. “Why [is it] always military hardware? And for all we know, they are giving us their surplus military hardware for already being obsolete.”

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in his third address to Congress on July 22 said the Philippines would continue to find ways to deescalate tensions in contested areas in the waterway “without compromising our position and our principles.”

PHILIPPINE senators have filed a resolution that seeks to suspend the government’s jeepney modernization program to avoid jeopardizing the livelihood of jeepney drivers and operators.

“There is an urgent need to thoroughly review and reassess the impact of the program to alleviate the fears of the drivers and transport operators who will be directly burdened by its implementation,” according to Senate Resolution No. 1096.

“More consideration and clarifications are needed to be made by the Department of Transportation in order to address the concerns voiced by affected stakeholders, especially the drivers.”

It is a sense of the Senate resolution, which expresses the chamber’s stance on the modernization issue.

Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel did not sign the resolution. Her office did not immediately reply to a Viber message asking why she did not sign it.

“The error of the Department of Transportation was to focus on consolidation and vehicle replacement rather than on route restructuring first,” Rene S. Santiago, a founding member of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines, told BusinessWorld in a Viber message.

Senate President Francis G. Escudero earlier sought to suspend the program since operators are finding it difficult to buy expensive modern jeepneys, which cost at least P2.6 million.

The deadline for jeepneys to consolidate into cooperatives lapsed on Dec. 31, but public utility vehicles had been allowed to keep operating until Jan 31 this year. The President later extended the deadline to April 30.

The modernization program started in 2017, aiming to replace traditional jeepneys with units that have at least a Euro 4-compliant engine to cut pollution.

Transport groups have asked the Supreme Court to halt the modernization program, which they said is illegal.

“These small stakeholders, particularly the drivers who remain unconsolidated are effectively forced out of their livelihoods, with most of them expressing that the only skill they have is driving,” the senators said in the resolution. — John Victor D. Ordoñez