bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

 
The Philippines can only afford a “frugal” military upgrade, defence officials said Monday, even though maritime tensions with China are growing.
Despite a proposed 25 percent rise in next year’s defence budget, the government must still divide resources between external defence and internal threats like insurgencies and natural disasters, Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and other security officials added.
Since President Benigno Aquino took office in mid-2010, the Philippines has acquired two former US coast guard cutters, three landing craft from Australia and South Korea and seven surplus UH-1H helicopters.
“The goal of updating and modernising our armed forces is a long and painstaking process,” Gazmin told a ceremony for the commissioning of 10 more newly-acquired air force helicopters.
“That means we have to be frugal and acquire reliable platforms at very reasonable costs... as allowed by our meagre financial resources.”
The modest upgrade has been prompted partly by China’s moves to stake its claim to most of the South China Sea.
These include building new islands in the Spratly archipelago and taking effective control of Scarborough Shoal after a standoff with the Philippine Navy.
Philippine Air Force chief Lieutenant-General Jeffrey Delgado said the 10 new helicopters will be used to address internal security problems.
The military expects more aircraft deliveries this year including possibly the first two of 12 FA-50 fighter jets earlier ordered from a South Korean supplier, Delgado told reporters.
Delgado said the FA-50S were mere “transition aircraft” toward more advanced more advanced fighters jets which the Philippines cannot now afford.
Defence department spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said communist and Muslim insurgencies remained a priority despite the new watchfulness on Philippine borders.
“We are first focusing on internal security and in the succeeding horizons, we will go towards external defence,” he said, criticising China’s reclamation work.
“They should stop their island-building. That steps up the pace of militarisation,” Galvez said.
The Philippines has been among the most vocal in challenging China’s sea claims, which also overlap those of Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
US ambassador Philip Goldberg said the United States, the Philippines’ closest defence ally, was ready to provide surplus military equipment and budgeted $50 million in foreign military aid to the Philippines last year.
 


'We have to be frugal': Philippines can’t afford full military modernisation amid tensions with China

Philippines defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin pours champagne over the nose of a Bell 412 helicopter in a christening ceremony. Photo: AFP

Beijing's South China Sea island building has polarised Asean nations

Aerial shot shows the alleged on-going land reclamation by China on Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands. Photo: Reuters

Philippines plans to boost military budget by 25pc to bolster South China Sea claims

A U.S. soldier (R) of 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team gives instruction to his counterpart from the Philippine military during the annual "Balikatan" (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games with Filipino soldiers at a military camp, Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija in northern Philippines in April. Photo: Reuters

Philippines to station fighter jets at former US base in Subic Bay to counter China moves

US warships are seen docked at Subic Bay in Olongapo city in October, 2014. It was once one of the biggest US naval facilities in the world. Photo: Reuters

The Philippine navy Hamilton-class cutter, the BRP Ramon Alcaraz, which had been decomissioned by the US coastguard, arrives at Subic Bay. Photo: AFP

A team of Philippine navy and congressional leaders sail to Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea for an inspection trip in 1997. China seized the rock formation from Manila in 2012. Photo: Reuters 

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Emmanuel Bautista looks at a miniature model of a FA-50 fighter jet after signing a deal for the aircraft with Korea Aerospace Industries in 2014. Photo: AFP

An aerial view of Naval Station Subic Bay (right) and Naval Air Station Cubi Point (left).

News

Asia

Southeast Asia