FY 2027 General Appropriations Bill Day 5 Part 2

Department of National Defense and attached agencies: AFP modernization. Suansing described a ₱50 billion FY 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) proposal for the AFP Modernization Program and said it fell short of DND’s stated ₱126.96 billion need. She identified ₱35 billion for Horizon 2 and 3 projects and additional multi-year contract obligations in FY 2027, plus ₱21.2 billion in existing multi-year contracts due under the FY 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA). She summarized these servicing obligations as ₱56 billion. Tinio gave two unreconciled historical modernization totals: ₱469.393 billion for 2013 through the proposed FY 2027 period, then ₱489.5 billion after adding FY 2027. The aggregate FY 2027 DND and attached-agencies NEP allocation and original agency-submission total were not stated; the modernization need is distinct from that missing submission total.

Budget categories. Suansing described the DND proposal as covering personnel and operating needs, AFP modernization capital outlay, veteran pensions and benefits, and civil defense. She appealed for immediate passage.

Military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pensions. Tinio cited cross-government pension totals of ₱145 billion for FY 2026 and ₱154 billion for proposed FY 2027, and cumulative funding of ₱1.295 trillion from 2014 through proposed FY 2027. These figures cover MUP services across government, not DND or AFP alone. Tinio said the national budget bears all pension costs. Suansing agreed the burden was unsustainable but said reform required further study; she wanted AFP personnel distinguished from civilian uniformed services in any burden-sharing proposal and said DND was open to reform subject to assessment. No timeline or adopted reform was stated.

Convergence program and construction projects. Elago cited ₱38.03 billion in combined DND–Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Tatag ng Infrastruktura para sa Kapayapaan at Seguridad (TIKAS) program funding for 2019–2025. A DND submission listed Philippine Army TIKAS projects valued at ₱14.496 billion for 2021–2026 and Philippine Air Force projects valued at ₱4.806 billion for 2019–2025. Elago said the spending exceeded the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) entire budget for FY 2027. Elago said the project lines appeared in DPWH’s Basic Infrastructure Program (BIP) after having been listed under TIKAS. She separately cited a San Antonio, Zambales barracks and boot-camp project with a ₱56.91 million contract, ₱60 million in the 2024 GAA and a ₱6.5 million FY 2027 NEP line; The contract ran from September 2024 to July 2025; DPWH showed 66.81% accomplishment. For a married-quarters rehabilitation project, she cited a ₱28.67 million contract, ₱30 million in the 2025 GAA and a ₱25 million FY 2027 NEP line; DPWH showed 0% accomplishment. Suansing said DND submitted no FY 2027 TIKAS projects and had no TIKAS project list. Elago requested a project-by-project accounting; Suansing asked her to furnish the details for review and said DND would raise the awards concern with DPWH. The project amounts and the multi-year TIKAS totals have different scopes and are not summed into a DND-wide NEP figure.

Gender and development (GAD). Elago cited a Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) 2024 assessment that 80.6% of DND’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) allocation went directly to related activities, programs and expenditures. She said the Philippine Army ranked fifth in GAD allocation at 15.37%, against a general minimum of at least 5%. The discussion also covered WPS programming and service-member protections; these utilization and allocation percentages are prior-year policy evidence, not proposed FY 2027 appropriations.

Other requested amounts. Elago asked for cumulative government spending under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), but Suansing gave no cumulative figure. She said the FY 2027 proposal covered regular camp expenses without an EDCA-specific line item, and Elago requested a breakdown. De Jesus asked for a drone appropriation; Suansing gave no amount, saying governance systems would be funded first and agreeing that analytical personnel, communications and maintenance could yield more benefit than equipment alone. No amount for either question was established.

Members expressed support for the DND budget and pressed for stronger funding and oversight. The joint majority–minority motion to terminate interpellation was carried without objection; no increase or restoration was adopted in this record.

DND mandate and operating context: Suansing described the Department of National Defense (DND) as responsible for guarding against external and internal threats to national peace and security. She said the mandate is carried out by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) across maritime, air, land and cyber domains, through the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and administration of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Systems, and through the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) to fulfill obligations to veterans who have completed service.

Suansing said uniformed services are ordinarily the first national instrumentality to reach affected communities after a calamity, and sometimes the only one present in the initial period. She also described the armed forces as increasingly called upon to be the first relief to reach stricken communities, while maritime areas remain contested and threats extend into domains that fleets or garrisons cannot hold alone.

Rep. Presley C. De Jesus: De Jesus asked what the Department of National Defense (DND) had established about reports of a possible new structure at Bajo de Masinloc, which DND Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. had said remained unverified, and what the 2027 surveillance and verification requirements would address. Sponsor Suansing answered that there was no permanent structure. Asked what impeded prompt verification without disclosing sensitive coverage or deployment details, she cited the accuracy of information. She said the proposed budget was a stepping stone toward gradually increasing operations and surveillance capability.

Suansing described real-time information coordination with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and other agencies through DND fusion centers. Asked what fishers and civilian maritime personnel could expect during emergencies, she cited the Coast Guard’s fleet increase and coordination on fleet capacity; when De Jesus asked about fishing guidance and where fishers could operate, she answered that the Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) also provide fuel assistance.

De Jesus asked what defense objectives the expanded exercises with the United States, Japan and France—including Balikatan 2026 activities in Itbayat, Batanes, near Taiwan—were intended to achieve. Suansing cited 360-degree terrain awareness, acclimatizing troops to local terrain and introducing them to new types of defense, weaponry and machinery. Asked whether China could view Balikatan as aggression, she said the department’s position was that the scale gave no reason to treat it as aggression, while acknowledging that joint activities could nevertheless be construed as provocative given their objectives.

Asked what measurable capability gains prior exercises produced, she said experience from the exercises enabled the Philippines to lead a “40-fighter strike” in Australia, which she presented as evidence of improved troop capability. On preventing miscalculation and preserving independent defense decisions, Suansing cited strict adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and international law.

De Jesus asked how the proposed 2027 budget would pair drone acquisitions with the systems and trained personnel needed to use them effectively, emphasizing operational integration, secure communications and support networks. Suansing said integration systems were being introduced under C4ISTAR—command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance—which she identified as a core pillar of the comprehensive archipelagic-defense concept.

Asked whether DND uses artificial-intelligence models to process imagery, identify unusual activity or prioritize information for human analysts, she said the department could not disclose that information.

De Jesus noted the March 2026 Philippines–France visiting forces agreement and a proposed rise in bilateral and multilateral engagement targets from 159 in 2026 to 242 in 2027, then asked what capability gains justified the increase. Suansing said the department was observing classified changes in capability and defense posture.

Asked how exercise costs were divided, she explained that each country generally bears expenses for its own troops and equipment, while partner countries bear their own. De Jesus characterized this as “kanya-kanya” and floated a likely 50–50 proposition; Suansing affirmed the separate-country cost principle, but the exchange did not establish a 50–50 arrangement. Suansing said every exercise is scored against indicators to assess proficiency or interoperability. Asked which completed initiative showed the clearest improvement relative to cost, she identified Exercise Pitch Black in Australia. De Jesus closed by supporting the DND budget and thanking its personnel.

Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago: Elago contrasted published TIKAS totals: an October 2025 news report attributed to the DND Secretary gave 944 approved projects and 648 completed, while the AFP Chief of Staff was reported as giving 927 approved, 663 completed and 139 ongoing. A DND submission listed 472 Philippine Army and 159 Philippine Air Force projects; Suansing instead enumerated 413 Army projects, 159 Air Force, 117 Philippine Navy and 233 General Headquarters (GHQ) proper projects, totaling 922. She separately gave completion counts of 273, 133, 91 and 12, totaling 509. When pressed for the discrepancy, she initially called 922 completed, then described 509 as the projects completed with proper turnover documentation and referred to a differential of “122” alongside 509. The figures and status categories were not reconciled. Elago requested a project-by-project report showing locations, funding use, completion, turnover documents and titled land.

Suansing cited design issues, land disputes and phasing among reasons projects did not finish, and said DPWH was the implementing agency. She said DND had validated and assessed structures and continued validating pre-2025 ongoing projects, with on-site DND assessment of delays, but deferred detailed implementation updates to DPWH. Elago cited a prior briefing’s 27 non-implementable and 51 implementable projects for 2026; Suansing gave 43 terminated or suspended projects, including projects affected by land problems, and said DND could not provide updates on ongoing projects that might later be terminated. Elago cited Joint Memorandum Circular No. 44, series of 2024: DND/AFP units originate potential projects, the DND Secretary endorses validated, evaluated and prioritized lists to DPWH, and DND’s representative on the Joint Project Monitoring and Supervising Team observes procurement, tracks progress, resolves implementation issues and submits monthly accomplishment reports. Suansing reiterated DND’s validation and on-site assessment while identifying DPWH as implementer.

Elago raised missed contract deadlines, design and land problems, incomplete turnover records and contractor oversight. Separately, she cited a T2B3 Builders and Supplies Corporation project that remained marked ongoing after its contract expired on July 17, 2020, and another contractor she said had also been flagged in flood-control work. She urged prompt investigation and accountability. Suansing said DND would raise the matter with DPWH because DPWH handled the awards, and asked Elago to furnish the project details so the department could review them. No investigation outcome was stated.

Elago argued for an independent foreign policy, opposing use of Philippine territory, ports and civilian vessels in the interests of foreign powers.

Elago said the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) had no specific assistance line for fisherfolk affected by fishing bans during bilateral exercises. She asked DND for a plan to avoid or address lost livelihoods, noting that fishers could be unable to work for three to five days. No DND plan or response to that request appears in this exchange.

Asked for DND activities supporting Women, Peace and Security, Elago received a list including health interventions and guidance for pregnant personnel on child care; local and international gender and development (GAD) and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) engagement; the PCW–AFP partnership; gender-mainstreaming assessments; gender-responsive planning and budgeting workshops; AFP family and executive conferences; Women’s Month and the 18-day campaign to end violence against women; GAD focal-point conferences; policy review and integration; and WPS training through the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

Suansing also listed a Men’s Rights Seminar. Asked about its purpose and content, she said it had been held once as an introductory course by former Justice Angelina Sandoval Gutierrez, covering men’s rights through jurisprudence under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act and family-law remedies. Elago emphasized gender rights as human rights and men and boys as partners in equality, while explaining the focus on women by the prevalence and persistence of abuse and barriers to justice. Suansing mentioned counterpart seminars under DND’s GAD program.

Elago asked what policy and offices handle gender-based violence and cases involving military personnel. Suansing identified the AFP gender-based referral system through J-1 and recourse to the Provost Marshal, Inspector General and Office of Ethical Standards. Elago requested copies of the relevant policy and a status report on implementation of the Expanded Maternity Leave for military uniformed personnel. Deputy Speaker Yevgeny Vincente B. Emano reminded the sponsor to submit the requested documents; no maternity-leave status answer appears in this unit.

Rep. Renee Louise M. Co: Co said the Department of National Defense (DND) had sent a letter about the requested post-operations report on the Toboso incident. The letter said the report was being provided subject to applicable security and disclosure requirements, but her office had received only the one-page cover letter, without its stated attachment or an emailed copy. She asked for the report and requested that her time be paused until it arrived. Sponsor Suansing said the Secretary of National Defense confirmed an attachment had been included and was trying to locate it. Co agreed to continue while it was being found, on the assurance that consideration of the DND budget would not end before she received the report; Suansing agreed. Co said she would rise at the end if she still lacked the report.

Co later said she was holding the report that had been meant to accompany the letter, would examine it, and appreciated its transmittal.

Co recalled the sponsor’s earlier committee-hearing answer that drones in the Philippines were used for surveillance, not offensive purposes, and that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) lacked combat-drone capability and specific use guidelines. She asked about an online video said to show a drone dropping mortar rounds in a combat zone in Barangay Bialong, Tugunan, in the Special Geographic Area (SGA) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Co attributed to the One Nationalist page a caption claiming an AFP drone strike against BFF positions, and said her own research suggested the aircraft was an Elbit Systems Thor Mini Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) quadcopter. These were presented as claims, not verified findings.

Suansing said DND and the AFP were tracing the source because the AFP lacked the capability to operate those drones. She said the AFP denied ownership of the drone operations and denied conducting the alleged drone operation. Co asked whether other government or non-Philippine agencies, including the United States, could be behind the use; Suansing said the investigation into the supposed perpetrators was continuing, without identifying an operator. Co requested a copy of the investigation report. Suansing then said the AFP reported operations in the area two days earlier, that the operation had ended, and that there had been no drone operations. Co requested an after-action report on that completed SGA BARMM operation; Suansing said the department would comply.

Co asked about DND or AFP partnerships with schools, including agreements like the University of the Philippines (UP)–AFP agreement. Suansing said previous partnerships involved research-and-development projects and scholarship programs. When Co asked how many active partnerships there were, Suansing clarified that she was answering about scholarships and said DND had 230 active scholarship partnerships. She did not give a count for research-and-development agreements; she said the department was locating that information and would provide it.

Co requested a list of the schools and copies of the agreements, and asked that the report identify which projects require continuous or regular military personnel presence on campus. Suansing said personnel attendance depends on the project and agreed the department would provide the requested information and documents.

Co raised an incident involving Philippine Air Force (PAF) personnel and student activists at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), which she said led to continuing harassment and red-tagging of student leaders. She explicitly recalled raising Professor Marlon Villarin during her interpellation of the National Security Council (NSC) budget in Part 1, identifying him as an author of an NSC Journal article on terror grooming. Co alleged that Villarin had made misogynistic and red-tagging statements about UST student Raven Rosales, that the Secretary of National Defense had publicly dismissed Rosales’s advocacy, and that Rosales had rebutted a claim that she had spent eight years as a first-year college student moving between schools. Co further said Villarin filed a disciplinary case against Rosales after she protested military presence at the university, invoking academic freedom. She asked the department to explain the incident and whether the secretary’s remarks were appropriate.

Suansing said the Secretary’s statement followed his seeing footage of PAF personnel being harassed. Co responded that a student’s forceful expression of belief did not warrant such language. She described heightened military presence on campuses, red-tagging, harassment, and intimidation as chilling students’ rights to expression and assembly and as campus militarization. Co said higher-education institutions and schools should be zones of peace and said the military should not serve there as security forces. She closed by thanking the sponsor for answering and saying her office had received the file.

Rep. Antonio L. Tinio: Tinio argued that the public could not readily find official DND or Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) information explaining how modernization funds were used. He pointed to a GAA special provision requiring quarterly financial and physical accomplishment reports through the Unified Reporting System (URS) or other electronic means and AFP website posting. In his review of available posts, he said the reports showed limited financial detail—such as obligations and disbursements—and physical-target completion percentages, and he cited gaps in quarterly website postings for 2023–2026. He asked whether DND was complying with the legal posting requirement.

Suansing said DND submitted reports to Congress, the Senate and the President. She explained that the website reports appeared periodically because new equipment was not purchased every quarter, and that some materials were classified or subject to operational-security requirements. Tinio replied that the required financial and physical reports were aggregate figures rather than sensitive equipment details and argued that the posting requirement still applied. Asked for a commitment, Suansing said DND would look into ways to be more transparent and disclose more information; she did not promise complete posting of every report or resolve the disagreement over website compliance.

Tinio asked whether DND agreed that the pension requirement had become a heavy and unsustainable burden. Suansing answered yes, then qualified the response: DND believed proposed reform required further study, wanted AFP personnel segregated from civilian uniformed services in any burden-sharing scheme, and was open to reforming the current system depending on assessment and evaluation. Tinio pressed whether reform could be expected before the administration’s final two years; Suansing again said further study was needed. Tinio interpreted that as no assured reform within the current administration, but the sponsor did not make a categorical promise either for or against implementing reform by then.

Tinio defined foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) as coordinated conduct by foreign states or state-linked actors intended to distort the information environment, deepen polarization and undermine democratic institutions. He discussed Secretary Teodoro’s appearance on a podcast about the Indo-Pacific and focused on maritime commentator Ray Powell and the SeaLight Initiative. Tinio attributed claims about Chinese-Filipino schools and universities serving as conduits for Chinese FIMI—including a claim that Batanes belonged to China—to Powell’s study, while urging that the claims be objectively assessed and that long-established institutions and communities not be unfairly targeted or “China-tagged.” He cited the study’s discussion of Chinese-Filipino schools, mainstream Philippine schools and universities, and alleged ties to Chinese institutions; those allegations are Tinio’s account of the study, not findings established by this exchange.

Tinio argued that scrutiny should apply equally to foreign influence from the United States. He cited material he identified as U.S. Navy reporting that the Office of Naval Research supported the creation of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, from which he described SeaLight as a spin-off. He characterized Powell and SeaLight as state-linked actors and said media appearances should disclose that connection, while emphasizing that Powell remained free to speak. Tinio framed the point as a call for independent foreign policy and caution against accepting U.S. narratives uncritically, as well as opposition to stigmatizing the Chinese-Filipino community.

Tinio used reports about the Iran war to warn that military bases and civilian economic infrastructure associated with the United States could face attack in a regional conflict. He cited a report of 172 attacks on non-military infrastructure in six Gulf Cooperation Council states, including oil and gas ports, airports, data centers, power stations and refineries, as well as attacks on U.S. bases. He then asked how the Philippines would defend its own sites as U.S. access expanded through Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and non-EDCA locations, including Subic, and through the Luzon Economic Corridor and what he called Pax Silica. He referred to Subic, Clark, Batangas and Laguna and raised risks to the country’s economic infrastructure. His account relied on reports and statements he presented during the exchange; the sponsor did not offer a site-by-site threat assessment.

Tinio cited the Heritage Foundation’s “Tidal Wave” logistics report, which he said projected that U.S. ammunition supplies could last less than a week and fuel less than a month in an all-out war with China. He also described a Defense Priorities proposal for a second-island-chain strategy, a non-intervention position on Taiwan, and ending U.S. mutual-defense alliances with South Korea, Australia, the Philippines and Japan. He said that proposal implied a U.S. withdrawal toward Guam and questioned continued reliance on the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty, advocating greater Philippine self-reliance and cooperation with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbors instead. In the final response, Suansing said DND took note of his concerns and argued that they were precisely why the country should support AFP modernization and the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept to protect Philippine territory. Her answer did not detail a response to each cited report or Tinio’s specific concern about the sites and treaty.

Rep. Sergio C. Dagooc: Dagooc questioned Philippine Army readiness results in the Land Forces Defense Program performance report. Tactical units reached 64% against an 81% target for prescribed readiness condition; ready reserve units reached 28% against a 79% target. The report attributed part of the shortfall to a revamp of the readiness rating system intended to identify and address capability gaps. Dagooc asked whether changing the system had lowered reported accomplishment and whether the Army’s actual fighting capability had been overstated in earlier years. Suansing said standards had been adjusted as threats and mission areas evolved, and assured him that earlier performance indicators had not been overstated.

Dagooc asked what concrete steps would ensure the revamp improved readiness rather than only changing measurement on paper. Suansing described a continuing process of upgrading, rescoping and rescaling against current threats and the targets the Army had set. Asked why the actual figures fell so sharply, she said the figures were measured under new standards, creating a gap; she also cited a wider set of domains, including cyber, as contributing to the difference between actual performance and target. Dagooc said some uniformed personnel were dissatisfied with their ratings and felt their training was being treated as substandard despite long service, and asked the department to review those concerns. He voiced support for the DND and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) budget and urged implementation of the modernization program. Dagooc then moved to terminate the period of interpellation and debate.