DND vows more upgrades to build credible defense posture for PH

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 27, 2023): DND vows more upgrades to build credible defense posture for PH (By Priam Nepomuceno)

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (Screengrab from RTVM)

MANILA – The Department of National Defense (DND) is continuing to build the "strong fundamentals of a credible defense posture" to preserve the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"The Defense Department is based on building blocks with strong fundamentals, we continue to build the strong fundamentals of a credible deterrent posture for our country, we continue the upgrades, continuing upgrades not only in our equipment but bridging the gaps between the different horizons in our modernization timeframe and the concomitant upgrading of skills of our people, both in the civilian side of the Defense Department and the five agencies," DND Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. said when asked on what is being done to achieve these goals during the post-State Of the Nation Address (SONA) briefing held at the Hilton Hotel Manila, Pasay City Wednesday afternoon.

Aside from this, he added that the DND is also working with its partner agencies in the government to maintain internal peace and stability as "territorial integrity may be subverted by outside threats through internal security challenges".

"That being said the President (Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.) also instructed us to look for non-traditional partners in alliances for upgrading our defensive capabilities and our capabilities to predict and analyze trends in order to prepare for any eventuality which may befall our country and need the use of DND resources in the future," Teodoro said.

Aside from this, the DND chief said the country is also looking for partners for the "convergence of both the economic potentials and security potentials of growth industries particularly in technology and in cyber."

Amid the emergence of "asymmetric" threats or those using unconventional strategies or tactics, Teodoro said there is a need for efficient and immediate analysis to enable quick decisions in dealing with these.

"As we know the threats to the country become more asymmetric, we need stronger, real-time and fully analyzed convergence of information from point of occurrence up to the decision-making process in as much real time as possible," he pointed out.

Also, the DND chief said efforts are now ongoing to beef up the morale of those personnel manning the defense and military establishments.

"Because the strongest factor is the human element, we also are strongly into efforts to upgrade the morale and welfare of our men and women in uniform in the DND. This includes our retirees and veterans whom we are mandated to care for. And the President's instructions are that their welfare be made paramount in our mandate to uplift the lives and to continue to care particularly of those who cannot care for themselves anymore," he added.

This includes ensuring the well-being, safety and health of the families of military personnel who are often detached due to deployments, Teodoro said.

Aside from this, Teodoro said there are now "program management and project management skills" to ensure that each and every item of equipment being acquired is integrated into a system with "synergies".

This includes ensuring that these equipment are programmed to have adequate resources for the optimal utilization of each and every item for its life cycle.

"And we are slowly getting the management practices and our resource management contracting acquisitions capabilities in order to have an optimal balance of much necessary resources at the best possible value for our people knowing that it is not cheap and defense is everybody's business," Teodoro said.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1206534