The Philippine military will maintain close ties with the United States and train with its forces even as it gets closer to China , the new armed forces chief told lawmakers in his confirmation hearing this week. General Gilbert Gapay said that “while our ties with China are warming up, it doesn’t mean we are abandoning our ties with the United States and other traditional allies, we are maintaining all these ties with allied countries”. ‘If China attacks our navy, we’ll call the United States’: Philippines The armed forces chief said “we continue to send our personnel to the United States to train with them” and “we have been receiving [maintenance support] from the US through foreign funding … the grants still continue”. According to Gapay, “the bulk of our equipment is still US-made and we are really dependent on the US for maintenance”. He told congressmen and senators that the Philippine armed forces received “roughly US$50 million a year for the maintenance of our aircraft, naval vessels and ground equipment like tanks”. The picture of a Philippine military still working closely with the US is probably not what President Rodrigo Duterte had in mind in 2016, when he went to Beijing and proclaimed to Chinese officials: “I announce my separation from the United States … both in military, not maybe social, but economics also. America has lost.” He cursed then US president Barack Obama as a “son of a whore”. Over the next few years, he scaled back Philippine participation in joint exercises with the US, and this January announced he was scrapping the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) an important component of the country’s 69-year-old Mutual Defence Treaty with the US. US orders fresh sanctions on Chinese firms over South China Sea But in June, he said he was “suspending” termination of the VFA because of “political and other developments” in the region. Analysts said the “developments” referred to both the Covid-19 pandemic and China’s steady encroachment on maritime territory on the South China Sea . This year saw the Philippine government becoming more strident and assertive in its maritime rights when the US started demonstrating its military strength in the South China Sea. On August 26, Locsin said Manila would not hesitate to invoke its defence treaty with the US if China were to attack a Philippine naval vessel. In his confirmation hearing, a constitutional process for congress to approve presidential appointment of top officials, Gapay said that “while we are strictly adhering to a diplomatic, peaceful and rules-based approach in dealing with the issues in the South China Sea, this soft approach doesn’t mean we are abandoning our claim to that area”. Gapay was appointed to his position on August 3, and the senate confirmed him after the hearing. Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros said she voted to confirm because Gapay “vowed that the military will continue to defend the country’s sovereignty and the people’s interests amid China’s provocations”. An analyst told the South China Morning Post “the Chinese aren’t trusted by the Philippine military”. Jose Antonio Custodio, a non-resident fellow of the think tank Stratbase ADR Institute, said that “the Chinese are seen as an adversary” and this outlook was “institutional” to the Philippine military. Chinese firms sanctioned by the US are deeply embedded in Asean projects Gapay told congressmen that “the VFA is still in effect, the termination was supposed to be August 9 but it was suspended, so it was extended by six months”. He said that when the VFA expired in February next year, it would be “subject to negotiations for a further extension of six months”. Analyst Custodio, who served three years as a researcher and analyst under the deputy chief of staff for plans of the Armed Forces, said it might be hard for the Philippines to turn away from the US because of the benefits it received. He noted how, despite Duterte’s antagonism to America, the US had continued to provide “a lot of assistance since 2016 – as of last year it reached over US$500 million”. “At the same time, the US assists in matters like maintenance of assets that have been procured from foreign military financing, like the Hamilton-class cutters, sometimes they take care of maintaining those; and the Philippine Air Force wants to get a multi-role fighter, it will probably be the American F-16.” By contrast, he said, China had provided four patrol boats, trucks and vehicles, assault rifles and 30 grenade launchers. “These pale in significance compared to what the US and other countries provide us.” He noted that China might have given patrol boats, but South Korea “practically donated” a Pohang-class corvette, a modern anti-submarine ship which has become one of the Philippine Navy’s most heavily armed units. Early release of US Marine who killed transgender Filipino put on hold Custodio said the Philippine military has had some exchanges with China’s staff college – “there are Philippine officers training in night flying”. But he added that Philippine personnel were “pro-US, they prefer to be in America than in China, for starters; we really have [long-standing] relations with the US”. He pointed out that “when the US military sends its people to the Philippines, often they are Filipino-Americans, China has nothing like that”. “Plus, China is grabbing our territory, it’s hard to justify that it’s your friend in the eyes of the soldiers, especially those in the navy and air force. They think China is just manipulating us.”