Teodoro pushes for technology-driven exercises

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said he wanted to witness real-time war scenarios, “more technology, transfer of learning, but more important, more deterrence and more interoperability."

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. during the closing ceremony of Exercise Balikatan 2026 on Friday, May 8. Photo from DND

Manuel Mogato | May 10, 2026

MANILA — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. , who witnessed personally a Japanese surface-to-ship missile destroy an aging Philippine minesweeper during an exercise, wanted more technology-driven drills in the future to increase deterrence.

Speaking to journalists at a ceremony at the main military camp in Manila, Teodoro said next year’s “Balikatan” exercises with like-minded countries should be “more purposive and impactful,” focused on drones, missiles, and other defense platforms to level-up deterrence.

Teodoro said he wanted to witness real-time war scenarios, “more technology, transfer of learning, but more important, more deterrence and more interoperability.”

“This is a deterrence exercise as much as it is a training exercise,” Teodoro, a reserve colonel in the Philippine Air Force, said. (Also read: Reconfiguring Philippine defense forces)

“And no country worth its salt will not deter any external aggression or any potential future threat whatsoever.”

“But the reality of the world is that you cannot secure a safe space for people to live the way they want if you do not ironclad this space, which is precisely what we are doing,” he added.

Teodoro said future large-scale military exercises should not only big in numbers, but have broader scope with more activities, different scenarios in diverse locations.

For instance, he wanted to see more activities in the eastern seaboard, the least defended areas in the archipelago, although China has started to send warships in the Pacific area, closer to Guam. (Also read: China protests New Zealand maritime patrols, New Zealand denies disrupting commercial aviation)

Teodoro, in the same occasion. Took swipe at China for lambasting Japan’s participation this year’s Balikatan iteration.

“I don’t buy that”, Teodoro said, referring to China’s statement criticizing Japanese participation in Balikatan. (Also read: Why countries in Southeast Asia should not fear Japan?)

He said China has no business interfering with the Balikatan exercise. “Why do they care?,” he added.

A staunch anti-China, Teodoro said China has been meddling into the affairs of other countries when it should be addressing its own internal problems.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, had said Japan “failed to deeply reflect on its historical crimes, it has even sent military forces overseas and fired offensive missiles under the pretext of security cooperation.”

He said Japan’s right-wing forces has been accelerating Tokyo’s remilitarization, putting “regional peace and stability under threat.”

Philippine military officials said the Balikatan is not aimed at China or other countries. The exercise is meant to hone their skills on territorial defense operations, the military officials added.

In June, Teodoro has another chance to meet with his ASEAN and other Western counterparts during the annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore.

“We need to do to increase our resilience,” he said, adding there was a need to increase cooperative efforts for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”