United States Defense Secretary Lloyd James Austin III announced Washington will be donating $ 1 million and providing military aid for disaster response to the Philippine government.

Austin announced this during his courtesy call with President Ferdinand Marcos in Malacanang last Monday.

"Mr. President, I have authorized US troops and all the Philippine forces to provide life-saving aid to the Filipino people. The US have also secured another $1 million in urgent humanitarian aid and that will enhance the work of the USAID (US Agency for International Development) and the World Food Programme," Austin said in his speech at the meeting.

The aid will be in addition to the $5.5 million provided by USAID to the Philippines since last September.

He said the US government will also deliver 100,000 pounds of supplies to typhoon-hit areas.

Austin extended his condolences and prayers to thousands of victims from tropical cyclones "Kristine", "Leon" ,"Marce" ,"Nika", "Ofel" , and "Pepito" .

Marcos thanked Austin for the additional support in the government's effort to provide relief.

"Secretary Austin, thank you very much for making your way here, as I say, because of the weather, and welcome to Manila," Marcos said.

He also recognized the role of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) in the government's typhoon response. There are 9 EDCA sites nationwide.

"They served as staging areas actually for, before, when we know that the storm is coming, we prepositioned as much, as many assets, material as we can, as close as possible as possible so as not to damage the actual resources that we have," Marcos said. DMS