Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa urged the Senate to restore the P10 billion cut by the House of Representatives from the P50-billion modernization fund of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for 2025.
During the Senate plenary deliberations on the proposed P6.352-trillion national budget bill, Dela Rosa noted the budget reduction to the AFP’s modernization program “is contrary to the pronouncements of politicians who appeared to be supportive of the AFP whenever the military was being harmed while protecting the country’s territories, particularly the West Philippine Sea.”
Dela Rosa expressed disappointment over the House of Representatives’ decision to cut the executive branch’s proposed P50 billion allocation for the Revised AFP Modernization Program to P40 billion.
The adjustments made by the lower house were incorporated by the Senate Finance Committee in its committee report on the budget bill.
“As a former member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, a former member of the Philippine National Police, and now a senator of the Republic, I cannot help but point out a glaring contradiction that I see. Because every time something bad happens during our resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal, our immediate reaction is this: ‘We condemn in the highest terms this incident, and we must ensure that we modernize our Philippine Navy,’” Dela Rosa said in his interpellation.
“That’s always the line we, as politicians and legislators, tend to say. But now as the budget deliberations are underway, the National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the Department of National Defense was even cut by P10 billion. I hope that what we say as politicians is always coordinated or synchronized with what we do as legislators who hold the power of the purse,” he said.
Dela Rosa emphasized that the country’s first line of defense should not rely solely on avoiding confrontation or resorting to escape and evasion when confronted by those who wish to harm them.
He then appealed to his colleagues to restore the P50 million AFP modernization fund to boost the morale of the military organization.
“I am talking about the morale of our people in the field. Maybe we can somehow restore some of the value there just to make our soldiers and sailors feel that their government cares for their welfare and that it’s not just lip service [where] we say one thing, but when it comes to the budget, we do something else. It’s as if we are undermining them,” Dela Rosa said.
“Our soldiers are willing to die for the Philippines,” he added.
With this, Committee on Finance Chairperson Senator Grace Poe committed to look into Dela Rosa’s appeal and expressed her willingness to consider the latter’s proposal.