What is courage if there are no weapons to fight with? Senator Imee Marcos on Tuesday raised this question as the country commemorates today the 82nd anniversary of “Araw ng Kagitingan” or Day of Valor.

According to the senator, the Philippines “cannot wage a war empty-handed, regardless of the amount of posturing and rhetoric,” an apparent warning to her brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., regarding his defiant stance against China’s growing aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

“We cannot even ensure the integrity of our weapons and ammunition production lines, yet some of us are engaged in warmongering,” she said. She noted the basic weapons and ammunition production shortfall of the Government Arsenal (GA) last year despite increased spending by 420 percent.

Araw ng Kagitingan commemorates the heroism and sacrifices of Filipino and American soldiers during World War 2, particularly those who fought in the Battle of Bataan.

Senator Marcos pointed out that the GA, a bureau under the Department of National Defense, spent nearly P455 million from its previous year’s budget for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses but failed to produce sufficient small arms and ammunition (SAA), as disclosed in a recent Commission on Audit report.

The amount was significantly higher than the P87.4 million spent in 2022.

“This is sad news about basic weapons for our soldiers and policemen. Money is being wasted. Will the lives of our men in uniform be wasted as well?” the senator asked, amid escalating tensions between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea.

Senator Marcos reiterated that the tension in the West Philippine Sea can be effectively resolved only through engaging in a “meaningful dialogue” with China.

All noise

“No weapons system, not even the most advanced ones, can stop a war — if that is what some of us want to achieve with all the noise,” she said.

“Constant dialogue, not only on the level of our foreign affairs department, coast guard, and defense establishment, but also the legislature and the President himself — the architect of our foreign policy and commander-in-chief of our armed forces — is key to overcoming the quagmire we are in,” she added.

Marcos, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, urged her brother’s administration to improve its responses to incidents in the WPS by having “multilateral discussions among all claimant countries in the South China Sea, namely, the Philippines, China, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.”

“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say this again, we must take this up with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the United Nations. We cannot be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result each time,” she said.

“And again, on this important day when we pay tribute to the valor of our soldiers in Bataan, I am pressing on with the need for us to revive the Self-Reliant Defense Posture (SRDP) program, which has long been overdue,” she said.

She continued: “Filipinos do not suffer from a lack of talent, skills or expertise to produce our own defensive weapons, but suffer from gross government neglect and a lack of appreciation for the importance of and wisdom in relying on ourselves for our defense.”

The Marcos siblings’ patriarch, former strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr., initiated the Self Reliance Defense Program in 1974 — at the height of martial law — to fulfill the country’s military hardware requirements without having to depend on foreign suppliers for firearms and related equipment.

“We have tried that, and we endured. The problem is we clearly do not walk our talk. Defending the nation should not just be about words; it is crucial that we are not found lacking when it comes to action,” she said.