MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) have disputed a claim made by a party-list representative that the United States has decided to withhold $2 million in military aid to the Philippines next year because of the local military’s alleged involvement in human rights violations.

Teodoro said that, if anything, the US had committed to double its military assistance to the country, as it recognized that the government and the military had taken the necessary steps to curb human rights violations.

He said he was basing this on his last conversation with US Sen. Daniel Inouye, chair of the US Senate appropriations committee, who vowed to increase foreign military assistance to the Philippines to around $43 million.

Teodoro was reacting to the statement of Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares who said the Philippines stood to lose $2 million in US military assistance next year, in addition to $2 million withheld this year, because of human rights concerns.

Colmenares, who visited the US in October, said he was informed by Raymond Richhart, deputy director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asian Affairs at the Department of State, that $2 million in US military aid would not be released to the Philippines next year since these concerns had not been addressed.

Colmenares said this was because of US House Resolution 3081 passed in July that stipulates that $2 million worth of military aid for 2010 would not be released unless the Secretary of State reports in writing to the US Congress that the Philippines had taken steps to address the report on extrajudicial killings of Philip Alston, the United Nations rapporteur on human rights.

According to Colmenares, Richhart told him the state department had been unable to make that report to the US Congress.

Colmenares said it was these same concerns that led to the non-release this year of $2 million in US military aid to the Philippines.

Teodoro said his office had not received any official communication from the state department on the matter.

“That is entirely upon the discretion of US officials and it’s their judgment that counts here,” he said.

“But we continue our operations based on our own reform mechanisms and reform systems,” he said.

In a statement, the DFA said the withholding of a $2-million portion of US foreign military assistance to the Philippines was “not a new development.”

DFA spokesperson Ed Malaya explained that it was a continuation of a conditionality tacked on last year, that is, the condition attached to that portion of the aid package had been carried over to the succeeding year. Jocelyn R. Uy and Leila B. Salaverria