THE government of the United States has decided to withhold $2 million worth of military aid to the Philippines in 2009, allegedly owing to the human-rights abuses previously raised by groups and churches in the US.

This was revealed on Thursday by Party-list Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares of Bayan Muna after meeting with US State Department officials.

Colmenares said the officials confirmed to him that the amount has, in fact, been withheld.

He said the State Department officials, whose responsibility includes US policy toward the Philippines, admitted that they were unable to report to the US Congress that the Philippine government had met the human-rights conditions required for the release of the military aid.

As a result, the final $2 million in military assistance appropriated by the US Congress for the Philippine government has not been released.

In 2008, following a hearing in the United States Senate on the human-rights situation in the Philippines convened by Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer if California, the US Congress voted to impose as a condition for the release of the full amount of 2009 military aid the Philippine government’s compliance with three human-rights conditions.

The conditions include the implementation of the recommendations of Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on human rights; the investigation and prosecution of military officials credibly alleged to be responsible for human-rights violations; and  that violence and intimidation of legal organizations should not form part of the Armed Forces’ policy.

Owing to the government’s failure to meet all the conditions, the US House of Representatives approved HR 3081 on the basis of the same three conditions. The US Senate has approved the House spending bill, which shall form part of the US 2010 budget.

“Members of the US Congress took the cue from the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston that the Philippine government must address the long-standing impunity for the killings, enforced disappearances and other forms of human-rights violations, and that extrajudicial executions and other human-rights abuses do not form part of the policy of the military and the government,” said Colmenares.

“The release of the military aid was tied to the prosecution of human-rights violators in the country, including retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, [now a representative of the party-list group Bantay]. Of course, it has always been our position that no country should give military aid to a repressive government,” she added.

Colmenares said that instead of heeding the conditions, the Philippine government merely launched high-level lobbying efforts of the US Congress, led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, President Arroyo’s Special Envoy Patricia Ann Paez and Legislative Affairs Officer Ariel Peñaranda.

But Colmenares said the failure of Mrs. Arroyo to investigate and prosecute  Palparan defeated all their lobbying efforts.

The Filipino-American community and the US-based National Alliance on Filipino Concerns, who also met with US congressional officials, have similarly expressed outrage over the spending of their taxes to arm a repressive government, Colmenares said.

Besides the UN report, Colmenares said members of the US Congress are aware of the Supreme Court decision in Secretary Gilbert Teodoro v Manalo and the Melo Commission report implicating Palparan and other military officials in various human-rights violations.

Colmenares also raised concerns with US State Department officials about progress of the Philippines Defense Reform Program, a large US funding for the modernization and reform of the Armed Forces, citing the ongoing impunity for human-rights abuses. He called for an end to the funding considering the human-rights record of the military and its coverup of the perpetrators of human-rights abuses.

The Philippines Defense Reform Program began in 2003 in cooperation with the US military and is funded, in part, by the US Congress. The State Department committed to inquire about the said funding from the Pentagon. The Pentagon has been criticized in the US for implementing aid projects, a purely civilian function.