Teodoro urges government to increase defense spending to build credible deterrence

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr urged government to allocate more funds to build a credible deterrence in the face of rising tension in the South China Sea.

Defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. at the sidelines of Stratbase’s high-level conference on the 10th anniversary of the arbitral award. Photo by Anna Mogato.

Manuel Mogato | July 12, 2026

MANILA — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr urged government to allocate more funds to build a credible deterrence in the face of rising tension in the South China Sea.

Speaking at the sidelines of the Stratbase forum on the 10th anniversary of arbitral award, Teodoro said the defense spending should be increase to 2, 3 or 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), or more than 600 billion pesos a year.

“We need to ramp up to at least 2 to 3 to 4 percent of GDP,” Teodoro said. “The basis really is to build our own internal deterrence mechanisms as quickly as possible.”

In 2026, the Philippines appropriated more than 300 billion pesos for defense, but more than 50 percent of the budget go to salaries and allowances of nearly 200,000-member Armed Forces and civilian personnel.

At least 40 billion pesos were earmarked for military upgrades, but more than 90 percent had been obligated to the equipment acquired in the previous administrations.

Washington, a key security ally, has called on Asian states to increase defense spending to 3 percent of GDP to counter China’s increasing presence and activities in the region. (Also read: Security-linked investments — aimed at taming China — spurs PH economy)

Teodoro said the Philippines needs to ramp up defense spending to acquire more maritime assets, like frigates and offshore patrol vessels, and build naval facilities.

He said the Philippines was expecting at least five second-hand Abukuma-class destroyer escort from Japan in the next two years.

Four Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) from South Korea and a strategic sealift vessel from Indonesia.

The US will also transfer second-hand Coast Guard cutters to the Philippines in 2027.

Teodoro said the Navy and Coast Guard vessels will also need to intensify patrols in northern Luzon and in the eastern corridor, where Chinese research vessels and naval vessels have been sighted in recent months.

“We will increase our patrols in all areas,” Teodoro told journalists. “In all areas, even in the Pacific Ocean and in the Philippine Rise. We need to do that, because once we be remiss in that, then somebody else may claim ownership over it.”

Teodoro’s comments came a day after a US-based think tank said Chineser scholars had claimed the Phiippines’ northernmost island, Batanes, is part of China because it was an extension of Taiwan’s geological features.

The Philippines’ national security appartus and the local government in Batanes rejected China’s claim, expressing concern about the Chinese scholars’ claims.

Teodoro even described the claim as “a joke”, while security analysts said the scholars’ claim was part of Beijing’s lawfare to justify its presence around the northern Luzon area, near Taiwan, which it considered a renegade province.