Pension, military modernization are...

PAGE 1 in this deliberation.”

In eyeing the “self-sustaining fund,” Teodoro said he wants to make sure that there are “prudential standards” in place to govern that fund.

Modernization, budget plans

Among Teodoro’s other priorities are the modernization plans for the Armed Forces of the Philippines as well as preparing to appear before Congress to set the 2024 budget for the department.

The military is now going into Horizon 3, entailing the procurement of defense equipment such as missile systems, submarines, and multi-role fighters. The phase will be the department’s priority until 2028 or until the end of the Marcos Jr. administration.

Teodoro said he will be continuing the programs already underway for the military’s modernization.

“The job of the [department] really is to build up its capabilities in order to be ready as much as possible to foresee, predict, and to react to defend the Philippines from any geopolitical happening,” Teodoro said.

‘Peace talks’ a hard no

The new defense chief is not supportive at all for holding peace talks with rebels. This is a turnaround from the position of

Galvez, who pointed to localized peace talks as an effective way of resolving issues between the government and rebels.

“I have always been against that… You can’t take up arms and just violate the constitution, the same way that we don’t want rightists also to take up arms against the government,” Teodoro said.

The Philippines saw military coup attempts during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, and mutinies during the Arroyo administration. Troops who joined the 2003 Oakwood and 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege were drummed out of the military but later granted amnesty.

“I have never been convinced that it is ideological. It is all getting, taking power for whatever reason,” Teodoro said. Teodoro also took note of the “gains” made by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, where Vice President Sara Duterte is also now a co-vice chairperson.

“We cannot also deny the gains made by the NTF-ELCAC in dismantling communist fronts and I have always been consistent in the position that rebels are welcome to go back to the fold of government,” he said.

Rights groups have called out the government’s anticommunist task force for somehow equating human rights work with terrorism. with reports from Xave Gregorio, Cristina Chi, and Neil Jayson Servallos/The Philippine STAR newspaper (By Kaycee Valmonte/Philstar.com) n

• Ambassador Maria Angela Abrera Ponce (Malaysia).

“We are constantly now, after all the changes that have been imposed upon us, like the pandemic economy and the world situation, looking for what we sometimes referred to as non-traditional partners in trades, in any kind, in security and defense issues,” Marcos said.

“All these things, we are always looking for partners,” he added.

The chief executive also urged the ambassadors to be open in discussing with him any opportunities that can be beneficial to the country.

“I’m sure you have heard that we are prioritizing agriculture, energy, all of the infrastructure development, and digitalization. Now, if there are opportunities that would come up, you should explore them and if they’re promising enough, then we’ll take it up. We’ll try to see if something can come up. There’s no harm in trying and kung anuman ang mangyari (whatever happens), at least we tried,” he said.

“So let us keep looking at those areas. And also what I found many times, you go there and you talk about agri and something else comes up,” he added.

Marcos has maintained that his administration would implement an independent foreign policy, saying that the Philippines would be a friend to all and an enemy to none. Experts however believe that such a vision would be hard to implement, as the Philippines cannot be neutral.

But within a year of his presidency, Marcos was able to restructure ties with the United States (U.S.), which was seen by experts to have weakened under his predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte — who openly preferred ties with China rather than the western superpower. This was evidenced by the identification of four additional sites for the Philippines’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the U.S. Marcos clarified though that reviving ties with the U.S. does not mean closing doors to China. Earlier this year, the president visited China for a state visit — marking the Asian powerhouse as the first country he visited in 2023. n