Senate Blocks $200 Million in Extra Aid for Philippines

The Senate on Monday rejected a plea to provide an extra $200 million in economic aid to the Philippines as it began considering a massive, $556-billion spending bill to fund most U.S. government operations for the fiscal year beginning Wednesday.

Lawmakers lavished praise on Philippine President Corazon Aquino but voted 51 to 43 against amending the bill. The amendment would have trimmed funds allotted to other countries so that aid to Aquino’s nation could be raised beyond the $500 million already approved for fiscal 1987.

“We want to help the Philippines, but we also want to help Central America,” said Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “. . . We have a lot of friends in the world, not just the Philippines.”

Supporters of the additional aid said its defeat will hamper efforts to stimulate the struggling Philippine economy and to help the Manila government battle a growing Communist guerrilla movement.

They also said it will reinforce Filipino skepticism about U.S. support for the fledgling Aquino government, which was installed earlier this year after a revolution ousted President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

“It will not do to simply say, ‘We applaud the revolution that took place in February,’ ” Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said. “. . . It (the aid request) should not be perceived as a burden but an opportunity to cement our relationship.”

The vote was split largely along party lines, with Lugar and California Sen. Pete Wilson among the few Republicans joining Democrats in backing the amendment. Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) did not vote.

Twelve days ago, after an emotional and eloquent speech by Aquino to a joint session of Congress, Democrats rushed an emergency aid package through the House, only to have it buried in a Senate committee by Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.). He argued that the deficit-ridden budget was already stretched too thin.

‘Knee-Jerk Reaction’

Similarly, Dole resisted the new Philippine aid drive, ridiculing it as a “knee-jerk reaction” to Aquino’s speech. He also cited signs of an anti-American drift in the Philippines that could imperil continued use of Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, two strategic U.S military facilities north of Manila.

The Philippine controversy highlighted a growing split over foreign policy questions between Dole and Lugar, long close allies. Aside from the Philippine question, the two have sparred in recent days over President Reagan’s controversial veto of legislation slapping tough new sanctions on South Africa.

Lugar has vowed to support an override of Reagan’s veto, but Dole said that he will back the President. While Dole in the past has deferred to Lugar’s judgment on foreign policy matters, the majority leader has become increasingly vocal of late as he seeks to generate support from the party’s right wing for his expected presidential bid in 1988.

The Philippine debate dominated the first day of work on the spending bill. The House last week passed a slightly larger, $562-billion version of the package.

120 Amendments

With about 120 amendments to the spending package still awaiting deliberations, there is virtually no chance that the Senate will finish work on the bill before tonight’s midnight deadline for action. However, both the House and Senate are expected to pass a short-term money bill to keep the government operating for a few days or weeks while lawmakers iron out differences on the permanent package.

Once the Senate clears its package, negotiators for that chamber and the House are also expected to clash on a package of arms-control initiatives blended into the House spending bill. The Reagan Administration and Republican leaders vigorously oppose the provisions, and the President has threatened to veto any spending bill to which they are attached.