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The Department of National Defense (DND) on Monday is seeking higher capital outlay under its 2027 budget as it seeks to build additional infrastructure that would bolster the country’s security capabilities.
The National Expenditure Program provides for a P324.632 billion budget for the Defense Dept. next year. Of which, P32,671,776 is allotted for capital outlay, a decline from the P43,148,125 approved for this year.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said that the capital outlay is the armed forces’ “biggest gap.”
“We need a lot of infrastructure right now, particularly on the eastern sea board, where we do not have naval presence. We do not have substantial infrastructure in Palawan, not for the naval purposes, but for the army purposes, which will serve as hubs for supporting our strategic bases,” he told the Senate Committee on Finance during the budget deliberations.
The defense chief also noted that there is only one Army brigade for the province of Mindoro and a single infantry division to secure Northern Luzon.
“So we really need to refocus our strategic positioning in these areas and we cannot do that until, sustainably, until the Army solidifies its footprint in the Philippines,” said Tedoro. “So capital outlay is extremely important also for building critical infrastructure facilities for security of our platforms and security of our operations.”
Moreover, Teodoro said the DND is eyeing building hubs in various parts of the country to help the defense forces’ mobility.
“So our mobility is sacrificed. We cannot bridge the whole of the Philippines, but the best we can do is to provide hubs, as many hubs as possible, which will support sustained operations,” he said.
Further, the department expressed its interest to have reserves for oil products.
“We are busy building up our reserve, not only in terms of ammunition, but we need it also in terms of petroleum, oil, and lubricants. We have big notional amounts of petroleum ready, but if we do not have physical custody of this, we will be relying on private gas stations to serve our needs, which is a vulnerability of our operating troops,” said Teodoro. —RF, GMA News