US to beef up workforce in PH, especially in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines—The United States government plans to beef up its 1,400-strong workforce in the Philippines to “ensure proper mentoring and implementation” of its development projects, especially those in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.

With a 2009-2013 operational budget of $560 million (about P24.8 billion), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is overseeing Washington’s development initiatives here.

In a report posted on the website of USAID’s Manila office, titled “Country Assistance Strategy – Philippines,” the agency said “adequate mission staff is essential to providing daily management oversight and accountability of (US government) funds.”

“The US mission to the Philippines anticipates adding more American direct-hire staff to its cadre of officers through USAID’s Development Leadership Initiative.”

“An important balance of both junior- and senior-level officers will need to be maintained to ensure proper mentoring and implementation of activities,” it also said.

About three-fourths of the staff of the US diplomatic mission in Manila are Filipinos, according to Wossenyelesh Mazengia, acting embassy spokesperson.

Aside from USAID, they work for other agencies like the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Foreign Agricultural Services, Customs and Border Protection, and Drug Enforcement Administration.

In its website, the embassy announced it was hiring electronics system and electrical technicians, consular investigative and administrative assistant, as well as a Peace Corps administrative coordinator.

Meanwhile, militant groups took turns in assailing the US government’s plan to beef up its personnel in the country.

Renato Reyes Jr., secretary-general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or Bayan, warned “the additional deployment may signal greater US intervention whether via counter-insurgency programs or more American troops, especially in Mindanao.”

Reyes noted “the US Counter-Insurgency Guide calls for the use of so-called development programs as part of advancing American interests in the Philippines.”

“The same development work also goes hand in hand in justifying the presence of US troops in the country,” he added.

Teachers party-list Representative Antonio Tinio said US “security advisories coming into conflict with their humanitarian projects are just some of the contradictions that are inherent in US intervention in Mindanao.”

“Setting aside for the moment the gross violation of national sovereignty, the US counter-insurgency approach — combining military and humanitarian intervention — has failed to address the root causes of poverty and violence in the southern Philippines, and is bound to fail as it has in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Tinio added.

For his part, youth party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino dismissed Washington’s plan as an “excuse to increase the number of US soldiers deployed here, another affront on our sovereignty.”

Palatino said it was “time for the US to stop playing big brother to us. Its so-called development programs are nothing but a new name for intervention on our domestic affairs.”

Early this month, the US embassy said its standing travel warning against the Philippines had no adverse effects on Washington’s development projects in Mindanao.

Mazengia told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that USAID “continues to work on its projects” in the southern Philippines.

The USAID projects are being done “in partnership with the Philippine government,” she noted.

In January, USAID resumed some of its projects in Maguindanao after a month-long suspension in the aftermath of the November 23, 2009 massacre of nearly 60 people in that province in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The victims, including 30 journalists, were shot dead by militiamen allegedly on orders from Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town.

USAID has directed at least 60 percent of its total aid towards Mindanao, according to the agency’s website.

“Between 2001 and 2008, USAID provided approximately $345 million to reinforce Philippine government efforts to secure lasting peace and build a better life for the people of Mindanao,” said the agency.

The projects include the $85-million (nearly P4 billion) EQuALLS, or Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills.

Phase 1 of EQuALLS, implemented from 2004 to 2006, aimed to strengthen and expand the Department of Education’s alternative learning system, build reading and numeracy skills of Grades 1 to 3 students in public skills and develop new models of distance education through TV and radio, among other things.

Phase 2 of the project, which runs from 2006 to 2011, focuses on three key objectives: increase learning opportunities for children and youth through community support for education, strengthen capacity for teaching English, Mathematics and Science, and improve livelihood training for out-of-school youth.

USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao 2 (GEM 2) program, meanwhile, continues the work carried out under the original GEM project which operated from 1996 to 2002.

GEM 2, which focuses on war-torn areas in Mindanao, covers the construction of roads and bridges, water systems, solar dryers, boat landings, and community centers.

Under its country assistance strategy for Manila, USAID’s priority goals are “accelerating growth through improved competitiveness; strengthening governance, rule of law and the fight against corruption; investing in people to reduce poverty; and promoting a peaceful and secure Philippines. –Jerry E. Esplanada, Philippine Daily Inquirer