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Philippines Relations with the United States
Precisely because the "special relationship" between the
United States and the Philippines has been lengthy and intimate,
it sometimes has resembled a family feud. Aquino enjoyed great
prestige and popularity in the United States and was named
Time magazine's "Woman of the Year" for 1986. Aquino had
spent much of her early life in the United States and returned in
September 1986 for a triumphant tour of Washington, New York,
Boston, and San Francisco, culminating in an address to an
emotion-filled joint session of the United States Congress and a
congressional pledge of strong support for her government. Soon
after, however, Philippine and United States government leaders
faced substantial differences on economic and military issues.
United States officials frequently expressed concern that
Aquino was not reforming her government quickly enough to preempt
the New People's Army's appeal. And, although United States
officials repeatedly warned coup plotters that the United States
would cut military aid if they overthrew Aquino, many Filipinos
worried that what they perceived as the United States
government's obsession with national security might tempt the
United States to support a military coup. To allay these fears,
the United States dispatched two fighter planes to protect Aquino
during the December 1989 coup attempt. Nevertheless,
recriminations resumed within months. Irritated by US$96 million
in aid cuts, Aquino refused to meet Secretary of Defense Richard
Cheney when he visited Manila in February 1990.
In the late 1980s, Philippine-United States relations were
bedeviled by a new problem: heightened concern for the safety of
United States military and civilian personnel in the Philippines.
Two United States airmen were shot and killed in Angeles City in
1987. In 1989 Colonel James N. Rowe, who was serving with the
United States Joint Military Advisory Group, was assassinated
near the United States military compound in Quezon City. (In
February 1991, two communists were sentenced to life imprisonment
for the murder of Rowe.) At least ten other United States
citizens were killed by communists in the Philippines between
1986 and 1991. United States Peace Corps volunteers were
withdrawn in 1990, when intelligence sources claimed to have
uncovered plans for mass abductions. One volunteer was said to
have been kidnapped by the New People's Army, but he emerged
unharmed. Finally, in 1990 the United States government
authorized hazardous duty pay for diplomats, troops, and other
federal employees in the Philippines.
United States access to air and naval bases in the
Philippines dominated Philippine-United States relations in 1991,
with emotional issues of Philippine nationalism often weighing
more heavily than economic or strategic arguments. The Military
Bases Agreement of 1947, as amended in 1979 and updated in 1983
and 1988, was set to expire in September 1991
(see Foreign Military Relations
, ch. 5). Clark Air Base, located north of
Manila in the plain of Central Luzon, was a logistical hub for
the United States Thirteenth Air Force, and Subic Bay Naval Base
was an extremely valuable repair and resupply facility for the
United States Seventh Fleet. Approximately 15,000 United States
military personnel (exclusive of sailors temporarily ashore at
Subic), 1,000 defense civilians, and 24,000 military dependents
were assigned to the bases. The United States maintained that
both bases were vital for power projection in the western
Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Middle Eastern theaters and wanted
indefinite access to both facilities, along with the Crow Valley
gunnery range north of Subic Bay and some smaller communications
installations.
Extension of United States base rights became a pivotal issue
in Manila politics. The need for some sort of military alliance
with the United States was rarely questioned, but the physical
presence of the bases has irritated nationalists beyond
endurance. The socially deformed communities outside their gates
were seen as a national disgrace. Angeles City (near Clark) and
Olongapo City (near Subic) had innumerable bars and thousands of
prostitutes, which caused Filipinos to be concerned about
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; see
Health and Living Standards
, ch. 2). There were numerous criminal gangs and
smugglers and criminal jurisdiction was a perennial problem.
The nuclear issue complicated matters. Article 2 of the
Constitution says that the Philippines, "consistent with national
interest, adopts and pursues a policy of freedom from nuclear
weapons in its territory." Interpreted strictly, this article
challenged the United States policy of never confirming or
denying the presence of nuclear weapons at any specific location.
Aquino finessed the issue, apparently determining that it was in
the national interest not to do anything to make the United
States leave the bases. But the Philippine Senate in June 1988
passed by a vote of nineteen to three a bill that would have
banned from the Philippines the "development, manufacture,
acquisition, testing, use, introduction, installation, or
storage" of nuclear weapons. The bill was defeated in the House,
but its margin of passage in the Senate indicated potential
difficulty in obtaining the votes of the two-thirds of the Senate
required to ratify any future base agreement.
Despite negative developments in Philippine-United States
relations, congruent interests in the early 1990s bound the two
countries. United States foreign aid to the Philippines in 1990
reached nearly US$500 million; United States private investment
stood at more than US$1 billion; and the United States and Japan
were key donors to the Multilateral Aid Initiative, also known as
the Philippine Assistance Plan, which offered some debt relief
and new credit in return for desired structural reforms
(see Development Assistance
, ch. 3). Political activity in FilipinoAmerican communities in the United States added another dimension
to Philippine-United States relations. Early maneuvering for the
1992 Philippine presidential election was as feverish among these
communities on the United States west coast as it was in Manila.
Data as of June 1991
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