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1 1 (February 14, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/govesob0001 and id is 1 raw text is: e nformng the eg siative debate since 1914 The Philippines Overview and Recent Deve opments The United States and the Republic of the Philippines maintain a relationship that includes a bilateral security alliance, extensive military cooperation, close people-to- people ties, and many shared strategic and economic interests. The United States administered the Philippines as a colonial territory (1898-1946) after 300 years of Spanish rule. There are over four million Filipino Americans, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs operates its only office outside of the United States in Manila, serving thousands of veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. Situated east of the South China Sea and south of Taiwan, the Philippines has long played an important role in U.S. Asia policy as a security and counterterrorism partner. The 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) requires the two countries to help defend each other against external armed attack. Rising tensions between the Philippines and the People's Republic of China (PRC or China) over maritime claims in the South China Sea are a potential regional flashpoint. In January 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the ironclad U.S. commitment to the Philippines in a call with his Philippine counterpart. The United States is the Philippines' third-largest trading partner, after China and Japan, and its largest export market. The Departments of State and Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided $169.5 million in assistance to the Philippines in FY2023. Aid included military assistance and programs aimed at promoting economic development, the rule of law, human rights, health, education, and environmental management. Congress has provided oversight, policy direction, and funding to shape the U.S. relationship with the Philippines, which is located in the first island chain in the Pacific and could play a key role in a regional conflict. Members of Congress have sought to shape U.S. policy on human rights and counterterrorism in the Philippines, as well as security cooperation related to the South China Sea. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. was elected president of the Philippines in 2022. Marcos's father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., ruled the country from 1965 to 1986, including through martial law from 1972 until he was ousted by the 1986 People Power Revolution. Sara Duterte-Carpio, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte (in office 2016-2022), won the vice presidency. The Philippine constitution limits both the president and vice president, who are elected on separate tickets, to one six-year term. The Philippines is slated to hold midterm elections-traditionally a key measure of the President's popularity-in May 2025 for House, half of the Senate, and local offices. Updated February 14, 2025 The U.S.-Phlppnes Aance In 1992-during a period of relative peace and stability following the fall of the Soviet Union and in the face of vocal Philippine opposition to U.S. military bases-the U.S. military withdrew from the two bases it had operated since the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). (The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases in the country.) In 1998, the two countries signed a Visiting Forces Agreement. In 2014, as tensions in the South China Sea were on the rise, the U.S. and Philippine governments signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), allowing the rotational presence of U.S. military forces, aircraft, and ships at agreed locations in the Philippines. The two countries agreed to increase the number of Philippine military bases open to U.S. forces from five to nine in February 2023. Figure I. The Philippines at a Glance President Marcos visited Washington, DC, in May 2023, and the two allies established new Bilateral Defense Guidelines, which aim to help modernize Philippine defense capabilities, deepen interoperability, enhance bilateral planning and information-sharing, and combat transnational and nonconventional threats. The guidelines appear to reinforce treaty obligations, stating that an armed attack anywhere in the South China Sea, on either party's armed forces-which includes both nations' Coast Guards-aircraft, or public vessels, would invoke mutual defense commitments under the MDT. The Philippines has been the largest recipient of U.S. military assistance in the East Asia-Pacific region, including Foreign Military Financing (FMF-$40 million in FY2024) and assistance under the Department of Defense's (DOD's) Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative. At the U.S.-Philippines 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in July 2024, the Biden Administration pledged to work with Congress to provide the Philippines with $500 million in FMF out of the FY2024 Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (Division C of P.L. 118- 50). H.R. 8771, a House-passed Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS)

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