Modernising The Philippines Armed Forces

The second five year plan in the ambitious 15 year Philippine armed forces modernisation strategy is moving beyond counter insurgency and onto ‘big-ticket’ assets.

- Andrew Drwiega

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), never cash-rich at the best of times, is nevertheless progressing through a modernisation programme which, importantly, has the support and encouragement of President Rodrigo Duterte according to Major General Restituto Padilla, AFP deputy chief-of-staff. Modernisation has been an growing necessity for many years in order to renew old and obsolete naval vessels, military aircraft and army equipment, some of which dates back to the World War Two era.

However to date the overall focus on defence has been split between the ongoing requirement to conduct internal security and counter insurgency (COIN) operations, and the growing need to protect the Philippines territorially from foreign incursions particularly by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

The Philippine government has, for several decades, battled against communist rebels and, more recently, jihadist groups. This conflict gained worldwide attention in May 2017 as the army fought a five month long battle for the city of Marawi, parts of which had been overrun by insurgents sympathetic to Daesh.

Unsurprisingly the first modernisation phase, from 2013-2017, largely focused on arms and equipment for internal security operations to bolster the army’s capacity to take on the well equipped insurgent groups.

On to Horizon 2

According Philippine Department of National Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong, $5.6 billion (PHP300 billion) was allocated to the second of three five-year modernisation phases, Horizon 2, which runs from 2018 to 2022.