Philippines to get $2.5 billion in US defense aid as South China Sea tensions rise

MANILA, Philippines, December 22 ------ The United States Congress has approved $2.5 billion (roughly P146 billion) in new security assistance for the Philippines, locking in Washington's multi-year military funding for Manila at a time of flaring tensions in the South China Sea and the broader Indo-Pacific region.

The funding was approved this week as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, a $900-billion annual Pentagon policy bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday, December 17. The bill will now head to US President Donald Trump for signature. The legislation authorizes up to $500 million a year in foreign military financing grants for the Philippines from fiscal years 2026 through 2030, for a total of $2.5 billion over five years.

Aid locked in. For Manila, this guarantee of five-year funding offers some degree of certainty from its sole treaty ally at a time when the Trump administration has been urging US allies to do more for their own defense — an approach that has led others to reassess Washington's reliability in future crises. Since the start of his second term, Trump has been described as being more skeptical of keeping good relations with the US' traditional allies, particularly those in Europe.

Manila and Washington have been treaty allies since the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which obligates both to come to each other’s defense in the event of an external attack, including anywhere in the South China Sea. The two countries also operate under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, first signed in 2014 and expanded in recent years to nine locations in the Philippines that allow for rotational access by US forces.

Bipartisan bill. The US' defense aid for the Philippines is provided under the Philippines Enhanced Resilience Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Bill Hagerty, a Republican, and Tim Kaine, a Democrat. The sponsors said the measure is intended to deepen US-Philippines defense cooperation and strengthen the Philippines’ military capabilities and interoperability with US forces. “As the United States and the Philippines face growing challenges to security and prosperity in the West Philippine Sea and the wider Indo-Pacific, it’s critical for our two nations to deepen cooperation,” Hagerty said in a joint statement released after the bill’s passage.

The multi-year guarantee of defense aid comes as Manila grapples with budget constraints in its own military modernization efforts, with the Marcos administration underfunding the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program, according to Justin Baquisal, a national security analyst at FACTS Asia.

The package is different from previous US aid announcements, which specified general amounts for maritime security and economic development without clear equipment allocations. The Philippine Enhanced Resilience Act and the defense authorization bill provide concrete budgeting and programming, Baquisal told Philstar.com. "Previous years the US and Philippines had mostly been focusing on general Foreign Military Assistance and the building of EDCA sites," Baquisal said. The recent measures "focus on the issue of having actual equipment, which is what the AFP lacks."

The aid also addresses cost concerns that have complicated Manila's defense acquisitions, Baquisal added. The Philippines — cash-strapped in its defense acquisitions — has found US-made military technology expensive compared to competitors, even for preferred systems such as the Multi-Role Fighter program and HIMARS and Typhon mid-range missile systems. The financing structure benefits both countries, Baquisal noted, as it supports the US economy when the Philippines purchases American equipment.

Standing uncertainties. Despite the mutual defense treaty, it remains unclear how far Washington would step in if tensions in the South China Sea — where China has been stepping up its sovereignty claims of features in the West Philippine Sea — escalate into an all-out conflict. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Manila in March, his first stop abroad, to reaffirm what he described as an “ironclad commitment” to the Philippines under the treaty. Hegseth told President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that Manila’s unique status as the United States’ only treaty partner in the region made the country a strategic priority.

Beijing has been steadily increasing its military patrols and harassment of Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea under the Marcos administration despite the 2016 arbitral ruling invalidating its territorial claims.

Source: philstar.com