MACAPAGAL, Pasay City — Following the directive of United States President Donald Trump to suspend global foreign aid, a senior foreign affairs official forecasted that the move was unlikely to severely affect the Philippines even as Malacañan tried to grasp the implications of the suspension.

At a press forum, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) undersecretary Eduardo Jose De Vega cited that the Philippines had many economic partners “and while the US involvement in our economy as a trading partner is still very high, . . . the freeze . . . (i)s not . . . going to severely affect (the country) because the aid packages from the US are small right now.”

De Vega stressed, however, mentioned the importance of “people-to-people ties and certainly the Mutual Defense Treaty” between the two countries.

"The Philippines is a longtime ally of the United States in the Indo-Pacific, where China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea are seen as a threat to peace and security in the region," he pointed out to add.
In the meantime, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) disclosed that the DFA is closely monitoring reports on the freeze order as it continued to work with “partners in the US Department of State and the US government to determine how this will affect the Philippines.”

“We will use diplomatic channels and back-channeling with Washington . . . (our) ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel Romualdez is 'very active' in this," De Vega noted.

The US aid freeze order was sent out in an internal memo by former Florida senator and recently appointed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio days after Trump took office and vowed an 'America First' policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.

The freeze virtually paused all foreign aid, except for emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt.

“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved," the memo clearly stipulated.

The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid—including to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joseph 'Joe' Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.

It may be recalled that in 2023, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided US$198.2 million in disbursed aid to the Philippine to support various development initiatives, with the largest share going to general environmental protection (US$32.59 million), followed by basic health (US$25.52 million), governance and civil society (US$24.98 million); and operating expenses (US$22.1 million).

The other sectors that received assistance were maternal and child health, family planning (US$19.27 million), emergency response (US$12.59), basic education (US$18.23 million), and energy (US$7.44 million).
The following year, USAID’s assistance to the Philippines reached US$144 million.