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 The initiatives are designed so that the United States does not
increase its permanent footprint in its former colony, but they
demonstrate that the two countries are increasing security
cooperation amid joint concerns over China's actions in the region's
disputed waterways.
Countries across the region have expressed concern over China's
activities, but the broader American military presence was not meant
to provoke conflict with the Chinese, Carter said.
"There will be a regular, periodic presence here of American
forces," Carter said at a news briefing in Manila with Philippine
Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin. "The things that we're doing here
are part of a pattern that goes back decades. They're by the
invitation of an alliance partner."
The first U.S.-Philippines joint patrol in the South China Sea
occurred in March and a second one happened early this month and
would occur "regularly" in the future, the Pentagon said.
The United States has recently conducted such joint patrols in the
South China Sea with Japan, but they are still relatively unusual.
 Carter did not say specifically where in the South China Sea the
patrols took place.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have
huge deposits of oil and gas. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waters, through
which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.
The Philippines has disputed China's claims in a case it has brought
before an international arbitration court. China does not recognize
the case.
A contingent of U.S. military aircraft and 200 U.S. airmen from U.S.
Pacific Air Forces would be at Clark Air Base, a former U.S. Air
Force base, through the end of the month, Carter said.
The aircraft in the initial contingent include five A-10C
Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft, three HH-60G Pave Hawk
helicopters, and a MC-130H special operations aircraft.
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In addition, up to 75 U.S. troops, mostly Marines, would remain in
the Philippines "on a rotational basis" after the conclusion of
joint "Balikatan" U.S.-Philippines military exercises this week. The
troops would support "increased operations in the region", the
Pentagon said.
The announcement of new rotations comes just weeks after the two
countries reached a separate security deal that allows a rotating
U.S. military presence at five bases in the Philippines.
The Philippines is one of the oldest U.S. allies in Asia, and hosted
permanent U.S. military bases until 1992. But the country's Senate
voted to evict the United States in 1991, and the two countries'
military cooperation dwindled.
The left-wing Bayan (Nation), an umbrella group of Philippine
nationalist and anti-U.S. organizations, dismissed the earlier deal,
called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, as a move by the
U.S. military to create a permanent presence in the Philippines as a
platform from which it could dominate the region.
"Our dispute with China can never be used as a reason to allow
another country to violate our sovereignty," its secretary-general,
Renato Reyes, said in a statement.
"It cannot be used to justify the return of U.S. bases under a
questionable and open-ended agreement."
(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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