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Philippines Security Agreements
The Philippines became an integral part of emerging United
States security arrangements in the western Pacific upon approval
of the Military Bases Agreement in March 1947. The United States
retained control of twenty-three military installations,
including Clark Air Base and the extensive naval facilities at
Subic Bay, for a lease period of ninety-nine years. United States
rather than Philippine authorities retained full jurisdiction
over the territories covered by the military installations,
including over collecting taxes and trying offenders, including
Filipinos, in cases involving United States service personnel.
Base rights remained a controversial issue in relations between
the two countries into the 1990s
(see Foreign Affairs
, ch. 4).
The Military Assistance Agreement also was signed in March
1947. This treaty established a Joint United States Military
Advisory Group to advise and train the Philippine armed forces
and authorized the transfer of aid and matériel--worth some
US$169 million by 1957. Between 1950 and the early 1980s, the
United States funded the military education of nearly 17,000
Filipino military personnel, mostly at military schools and
training facilities in the United States. Much United States aid
was used to support and reorganize the Philippine Constabulary in
late 1947 in the face of growing internal unrest. A contingent of
Philippine troops was sent to Korea in 1950. In August 1951 the
two nations signed the Mutual Defense Treaty Between the Republic
of the Philippines and the United States of America.
Data as of June 1991
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