The Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP, will adapt to the paradigm that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has directed by strengthening its resources to deal simultaneously with both external and internal threats.

The President has ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to reconfigure the country’s defense approaches to security threats, Chief-of-Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner said on Monday.

“The President wants to reconfigure the approaches in dealing with different threat groups which are the communist rebels,

terrorist organizations and the threats in the West Philippine Sea, and the periodic natural disasters,” Brawner said after Marcos presided over the AFP’s 2023 Yearend Command Conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Brawner added that the final phase of the AFP’s modernization program is focused on the archipelagic concept.

Horizon 3 of the AFP modernization program has yet to be approved by the President as the refining process is still ongoing, according to the military chief.

“We are still in the process of refining it further but Horizon 3 of our modernization program will focus on the defense of our archipelago; it’s focused on the archipelagic defense concept,” he said.

The archipelagic defense concept, Brawner said, requires the acquisition of more vessels, aircraft, and radar systems for the armed forces.

Marcos, in his speech, said that in dealing with threats “it is not enough that we do it by ourselves, we also need the help of our countrymen.”

He said the military organization was keen “to invoke the whole-of-nation approach” in securing the nation.

“The government will not work on it alone, but even our citizens and most especially our President said that we also have to gain the support of our international allies and like-minded partner countries,” Brawner said.

Adjust for emerging threats

“He also mentioned that he doesn’t want to micro-manage and the AFP and our commanders on the ground should be very innovative and imaginative in our approaches,” Brawner said, noting that Marcos “did not say that there’s something wrong with the current organization that we have.”

“What he meant was we have to reconfigure to be more effective in addressing the threats.”

Marcos cited the developments in the country’s warfare in the cyber domain as among the innovations the AFP has taken.

“That’s why we need to reorganize. Here in the AFP, we are creating a cyber command for us to be able to fight [threats] in the cyber domain,” he said.

Brawner stressed the AFP’s shift to policies and programs is aligned with Marcos’ guidance.

“We welcome the guidance of the President. As the commander-in-chief, we will follow the orders that he gave,” he said.

“One of the major portions of this morning’s command conference was the assessment of the performance of the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the year 2023,” Brawner added.

“From that assessment, we were very happy to note that we have done a lot. We have had a lot of accomplishments in terms of defeating the communist terrorist group and other terror groups,” he noted.

Horizon 1 and Horizon 2 were implemented from 2013 to 2018 and from 2018 to 2022, respectively.

Horizon 3 or the final phase of the modernization program is scheduled to run this year until 2028. It consists of acquiring equipment geared for external defense.

“We will also focus on developing the islands and the other sea formations, for instance, Pag-asa, Lawak, and the other features that we are occupying,” Brawner said.

The Philippine-occupied Pag-asa and Lawak islands are part of the Kalayaan Group of Islands in the WPS.

Brawner said the improvement of the country’s outposts includes ensuring the welfare of the soldiers deployed to the contested areas to uplift their morale. 

“We’re trying to give them some equipment like desalination machines so that they have water,” he said. “We are just trying to make it more livable, more habitable for our soldiers because they live under difficult conditions.”

Asked if the country’s military outpost in the Ayungin Shoal — the BRP Sierra Madre — is included in the development of islands in the WPS, Brawner replied: “No, it does not include fortifying it. What we are trying to do is make these features more habitable for our troops.”

The country will continue to push for the improvement of the islands despite China’s opposition, primarily to bring supplies to the grounded BRP Sierra Madre.

“We are trying to improve all the islands that we occupy. We continue to develop these facilities,” he said.