Defenseless

At this point, I find it unnecessary to debate on in whose administration things got messed up with regard to territorial disputes over the West Philippine Sea. Rather, the real issue here is: “Which administration allowed the Philippines to be relatively defenseless that it is today?”

For me, ex-president Noynoy Aquino does not deserve to take all the cudgels and blows for there were several others who, just like him, had been reluctant and complacent on developing our country’s defense and military power.

For the uninformed, the Philippines is considered one of the few countries in the Asia Pacific Region and in the world with weak military capabilities. Aside from the decades-old and seemingly “antediluvial” AFP frigates and equipage the AFP has and makes the most out of, there are other findings that support this conclusion. In the Asia Power Index released by Lowy Institute, a policy think tank, the Philippines is 19th among 25 countries in Asia in terms of military capability measure. This is so despite the observed progress in our country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and overall economic status. Relative to other countries or nations in the world, the Philippines is also and still underachieving according to the Military Strength Ranking by Global Firepower. Sadly, the Philippines still gets these low ranks in numbers despite the valor, dedication, courage, and fervent efforts for professionalism and modernization by its Armed Forces.

It couldn’t be stressed even more that fortifying one’s defense posture is one of the vital investments and initiatives a state should undertake. The Philippines need not be as extravagant as the Big Five (US, France, Russia, China and Japan), but at least we could have something suf- ficient to protect every single territory we have against intrusion and every province we govern from insidious insurgent attacks. Had this been the case, we could have at least had a backup plan apart from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling that the Aquino administration triumphantly procured, which to China, is a mere scrap of paper. Had we invested on strengthening our defense posture early on (We actually had so much time before!), we could have focused more on other timely concerns without being overwhelmed with uncertainties as to the fate and future this country will make of.

At any rate, still being the hopeful Filipino that I am, I would like to believe that we still have more time ahead of us to compensate our misplaced complacency with efficiency and stability.