The Philippines’ Painful and Sluggish Journey Towards External Defence
The Philippines’ Painful and Sluggish Journey Towards External Defence

Summary/Abstract: During the 9/11 attacks, the Philippine defence sector was already experiencing capability drawbacks as it had been a decade since the United States Military left the country. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were having problems sustaining itself due to many systemic challenges as it tried hard to stand on its own after so many years of dependence on the United States. After another decade, the improvement in the Philippine defence sector is not significant, especially in the AFP’s external defence capabilities, while China is aggressively claiming almost the entire West Philippine Sea, including the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone. The AFP is watching helplessly, not yet ready to provide any semblance of military deterrence. The Philippines’ capability to focus on external defence is contingent upon some systemic challenges including political, economic, social, and security predicaments. The tug of war between having external defence capabilities and being tasked to perform internal security operations prevents the Philippine Armed Forces from accomplishing its constitutional mandate of securing the territory and deter external aggressors. Among the major systemic challenges, the Philippine economic dilemma has proven to be the most influential as almost everything boils down to economics. A strong economic standing could address poverty, unemployment, social inequality, and discontent, which are the main drivers of insurgency. In the same manner, a robust economy could provide resources for a military modernization programme which would capacitate the AFP in performing its task of providing a Modest but effective deterrent posture against a probable external antagonist. Hence, the Author is leaning on recommending that the Philippine leadership should focus more on strengthening, revitalizing, and maximizing its economic potential to allow the government to slowly address various systemic challenges.

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