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The Office of the Civil Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines participate in the Nationwide Earthquake Drill at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on March 25, 2024.  Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

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Paige Javier

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/172715964202220240325-ocd-national-earthquake-drill-JC-1041.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="The Office of the Civil Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines participate in the Nationwide Earthquake Drill at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on March 25, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File"/>The Office of the Civil Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines participate in the Nationwide Earthquake Drill at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on March 25, 2024.  Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File</div>MANILA — Sen. JV Ejercito on Tuesday urged for the prioritization of the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program amid the ongoing tension with China in the West Philippine Sea.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/07/23/marcos-jr-vows-continued-modernization-of-afp">• Marcos Jr. vows continued modernization of AFP</a></div>In the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Ejercito expressed concern over the budget cut for one of the priority programs of the Department of National Defense (DND).&quot;I am really worried sa pag cut ng budget sa modernization. Naghahabol na nga po tayo eh. We are already playing catch up already. There&#x27;s no reason for us to, for the AFP Modernization to experience further budget cuts because of the sensitive and precarious situation in the West Philippine Sea,&quot; he said.&quot;We cannot afford a delay in our modernization program because we are already late na late na tayo, naghahabol tayo, tapos ilalagay sa unprogrammed. I will propound this again in the plenary,&quot; Ejercito added.Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said they proposed P245 billion for the program, but only P75 billion was approved under the 2025 National Expenditure Program.Teodoro said the requested amount was &quot;to support the transition to external defense or territorial defense.&quot; It covers 11 ongoing projects and 25 priority projects. He added that P170,119,611 remain unfunded under the Revised AFP Modernization Program.Of this figure, P50 billion was placed under programmed appropriations and P25 billion under unprogrammed funds.Teodoro said the items under the programmed funds include cybersystems, weapons and upgrade systems, ground base air defense system support and the horizon programs. In the 2024 General Appropriations Act, the program received P50 billion in funding. Teodoro said there are several items that will be affected by the budget cut including additional domain awareness like radars, missile systems, combat engineering equipment and aviation engineering equipment. Ejercito called for all the funds for AFP modernization program be placed under programmed appropriations to avoid further delays. The Defense chief also said that P10 billion from last year&#x27;s unprogrammed funds were not released.&quot;This year we have another P25 billion that is unprogrammed. So kung hindi pa narelease this year, hindi pa narerelease yung P10 billion so parang ano ito mister chair eh. Parang pangako. Kung meron may pondo okay. Pag priority programs it should always be in the line item. These are really essential especially in our situation right now. Naghahabol tayo babawasan pa,&quot; Ejercito said. &quot;Baka pag magising tayo mister chair, pag hindi natin nabili ito, ;yung Tsina nasa tabi na natin. There is no reason for us to delay this further dahil naghahabol na tayo,&quot; he added. &quot;Para tayong naglolokohan pag sinabi mong priority program ito. Priority, priority pero ilalagay natin sa unprogrammed,&quot; Senator Ronald Dela Rosa added. According to Teodoro, the country is lagging behind compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors like Vietnam and Thailand. In the 2025 proposal, the country&#x27;s defense spending will be 1.83%, an increase from 1.04 percent from last year. &quot;The minimum as of two years ago is 2 percent. That&#x27;s assuming you have basic deterrence capabilities already. But now even advanced countries are going to about 4% of GDP particularly in Europe where they are fast-tracking their defense buildup for their own selves and to support Ukraine,&quot; Teodoro explained. &quot;Malaking tulong ho yung 2% lalong-lalo na sa Philippine Navy para yung presence natin sa West Philippine Sea paikot-ikot, strategic yung presence,&quot; he added. Dela Rosa and Ejercito highlighted the need to increase the country&#x27;s defense spending. &quot;Because of the situation that we have right now, tayo na nga yung binu-bully ng China, tayo pa pinakamababa. Tayo na nga yung binubully ng China among the ASEAN nations, tayo pa ang pinaka mababa yung spending. We really need to catch up,&quot; Ejercito said. The Senate Finance Committee deemed the DND budget&#x27;s of P254.115 billion  submitted to the plenary. It also asked the agency to submit a wish list of programs it seeks additional funding for, which will be discussed in an executive session.<div>RELATED VIDEO</div><div><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7KvByzIMWBQ?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div><div> </div>

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said they proposed P245 billion for the program, but only P75 billion was approved under the 2025 National Expenditure Program.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said they proposed P245 billion for the program, but only P75 billion was approved under the 2025 National Expenditure Program.

More funding sought for AFP modernization amid West PH Sea tension

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More funding sought for AFP modernization amid West PH Sea tension

Paige Javier,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 24, 2024 02:35 PM PHT

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