At the defense department’s budget hearing last month, Secretary Gilbert Teodoro announced a plan to acquire three squadrons of multi-role fighters to build a minimum credible defense capability to protect the country’s airspace.
However, given the annual defense budget, no lawmaker asked him if the Philippines could afford to acquire 36 multi-role fighters (MRFs) plus four reserve aircraft.
Based on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s approved third horizon plan in December 2023, the government was to spend P400 billion for the multi-role fighter project.
However, for 2025, the government requested Congress to fund the Department of National Defense with an allocation of P254.1 billion.
Additionally, it has requested P75 billion in special funds for the modernization program. However, P25 billion worth of items are still unprogrammed.
Looking at the balance sheet, the Philippines needs help acquiring 40 fighters in one go. It has been negotiating to acquire a squadron of 12 fighters with a budget of $1.2 billion under the “second horizon” plan.
The Philippines urgently needs these fighters to bolster its integrated air defense systems.
It already has three powerful Japanese-built radars that can detect, monitor, and track aircraft as far as 400 miles away in the South China Sea.
It also has Israeli-made surface-to-air missiles to protect the radar sites in Palawan, Lubang Island, and northern Luzon.
It must have multi-role fighters to interdict aircraft straying into the Philippine Air Defense Identification Zone (PADIZ).
The Philippines only has trainer jets – the Agusta Siai Marchetti S-211 and the South Korean TAI FA-50 aircraft – with limited capabilities.
Sources in the Philippine Air Force said only one S211 and three FA50 planes were operational because there were delays in delivering spare parts, grounding the fleet of nearly 12 jets.
The Department of National Defense needs help from lawmakers to change the tedious procurement system, which would allow the military to take out loans of more than $300 million for the expensive hardware.
Teodoro was surprised the military was acquiring sophisticated and modern equipment in the short-term period of five years when the amortization or multi-year appropriations could be stretched to about 60 percent of the equipment’s shelf life.
A more extended amortization period would be more digestible for the Philippine economy and allow the defense department to stretch limited funds.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Monetary Board must also change the rules to allow private banks to lend money to acquire the equipment needed to protect the country’s borders and exclusive economic zones.
When the second modernization plan was approved under the Benigno Aquino III administration, it only requested P300 billion.
Under Aquino, 53 modernization projects worth P96.709 billion were approved.
However, when Rodrigo Duterte came to power, he approved 98 projects worth P451.369 billion, overshooting the government’s P300-billion plan.
Aquino completed 38 projects worth P71 billion, while Duterte finished only 22 projects worth P50.2 billion.
In short, only 60 projects worth P121.2 billion were completed under the two horizons.
At least 91 projects worth more than P245 billion remained to complete the two horizons.
It could take half a decade to complete the two horizons with an average allocation of P50 billion under the modernization fund.
In December 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved an ambitious military modernization plan – 37 projects worth P1.8 trillion.
There were doubts if a single project would be completed under the Marcos administration, given the enormous funding needed in the first two horizons.
Even if the defense department would cancel and terminate 15 projects under Horizon 1, because they were obsolete, it would not be enough to complete the projects.
The defense department has to resort to creative means to put together all three horizons, discard the obsolete projects and upgrade the capability needed.
There is a need to increase defense spending if the Philippines wants to catch up with the capabilities of other Southeast Asian states.
Currently, the Philippines spends at least 1.1 percent of its GDP on defense compared with other states, which invest 2 to 3 percent of their GDP on defense.
In Europe, most states spend a minimum of 4 percent of their GDP, ramping up arms production due to the conflict in Ukraine.
The Philippines has no ambition to match the military capability of Singapore, the most advanced in the region, and superpower China.
However, the bottom line is that it must have a credible capability to deter external threats in its maritime zones. Manny Mogato
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