The Philippines is allocating P256.1 billion ($4.38 billion) for defense spending in 2025, up 6.4 percent from this year’s budget as the country seeks to modernize and boost its external defenses, the budget department said on Monday.
The proposed increase in defense spending comes at a time of growing tensions with Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which China mostly claims as its own.
The defense budget accounts for 4.0 percent of the government’s proposed P6.35 trillion spending plan for 2025, which the budget ministry submitted to Congress on Monday for approval.
Of the total defense budget, P204.4 billion will go to land, air forces and naval forces defense programs, the budget ministry said, while P50 billion will help fund the armed forces’ revised modernization plan, which reflected a shift in strategy away from internal to external defense.
Next year’s spending plan, which is equal to 22 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, is 10.1 percent higher than the current budget, to support Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos’ agenda to grow the economy by 8 percent and reduce poverty.
