For all of the controversy over the Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts, as well as worries that the administration will abandon old military allies in Europe and Asia, there’s at least one U.S. military ally in the Indo-Pacific that won’t have to worry about losing American financial support anytime soon: the Republic of the Philippines. 

Given the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) ongoing acts of aggression against the Philippines in the South China Sea, which Philippine government officials have labeled an “existential threat,” these reassurances couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Philippines and America

As reported by Rachelle Tonelada of the Manila Standard on February 26, 2025, Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel “Babe” del Gallego Romualdez, the United States government decided to exempt $336 million from the Trump........

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