 I'm Michael Schiffer, the Assistant Administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development, and I'm here at the United States Institute for Peace to speak about the U.S. Development Partnership with one of our most essential collaborators and partners in Southeast Asia, the Philippines. The U.S.-Philippines relationship, our alliance, is in an extraordinarily strong place right now, and USAID is absolutely committed to making good on our commitments to the people of the Philippines. We are especially excited to be able to engage in more work, to promote exclusive economic growth, to improve the management of natural resources, to mitigate the threat of disasters and help the Philippines build greater disaster resilience in the face of climate change, to encourage responsive and transparent governance, to promote peace, and to work with the Philippines to help improve health systems. This past June, I was lucky enough to be able to visit our mission in the Philippines and to also travel to Northern Luzon, where I engaged with local communities and awarded more than one million dollar in grants to support energy, security, and conservation, and also to travel to Palawan, where I was able to explore some of the work that we were doing on natural resource conservation, particularly looking at maritime and fisheries related issues. When I was in Metro Manila, I visited a USAID-supported local government initiative that provides evidence-based and culturally sensitive treatment to low-risk persons who use drugs to help underscore some of the community-based health work that we support in the Philippines. And overall, I was able to have the chance to observe in real time how USAID investments are empowering the government, civil society organization, and communities in the Philippines to take the lead in implementing measures to protect their natural resources, combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and to work on a number of other initiatives that are crucial for moving our partnership forward. The World Risk Index ranked the Philippines as the country with the highest disaster risk in 2022. Our work is designed to mitigate the effects of climate change and provide rapid humanitarian assistance when necessary. For example, we work with the World Food Program and the Philippine Department of Information, Communication, and Technology to develop assistance that will enhance the country's disaster response capabilities. This work provided essential after Typhoon Rye struck the Philippines in December 2021 when local government officials were able to activate these mobile telecommunication units and reconnect vital internet services and communication channels, allowing humanitarian assistance to reach local communities much more rapidly and in a much more targeted way. These challenges with climate-based and climate-driven disasters are likely to intensify in the years to come. As such, the climate crisis fuels a sense of urgency in our program design.