Pension, military modernization are new Defense chief Teodoro's priorities
MANILA, Philippines — As Gilberto Teodoro Jr. returns to the helm of the Department of National Defense, the new chief will be focusing on ironing out the issues on the pension fund of military personnel as it was President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s “marching order.”
“I can review it and see because we want a self-sustaining pension system as [much as] possible but it needs a couple of years to load it up in order for that to be self-sustaining,” Teodoro told the ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Headstart” on Wednesday.
Teodoro cited his experience as an independent director of a “big financial institution” in his comments on the pension for military and uniformed personnel. In 2014, he was elected to in the board of directors of BDO Unibank.
Proposed reforms are being taken up by Congress. Then President Rodrigo Duterte hiked military and police salaries in 2018 and pensions for retired uniformed personnel are pegged to current salaries. Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who was also part of Duterte’s economic team, has warned that the current pension system is “not sustainable” and may lead the country to a “fiscal collapse.”
While the department supports ways to resolve the issue, Defense Senior Undersecretary Carlito Galvez Jr. has asked lawmakers that “the morale and welfare of our soldiers be given due weight in this deliberation.”
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In eyeing the “self-sustaining fund,” Teodoro said he wants to make sure that there are “prudential standards” in place to govern that fund.
Modernization, budget plans
Among Teodoro’s other priorities are the modernization plans for the Armed Forces of the Philippines as well as preparing to appear before Congress to set the 2024 budget for the department.
The military is now going into Horizon 3, entailing the procurement of defense equipment such as missile systems, submarines, and multi-role fighters. The phase will be the department’s priority until 2028 or until the end of the Marcos Jr. administration.
Teodoro said he will be continuing the programs already underway for the military’s modernization.
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“The job of the [department] really is to build up its capabilities in order to be ready as much as possible to foresee, predict, and to react to defend the Philippines from any geopolitical happening,” Teodoro said.
'Peace talks' a hard no
The new defense chief is not supportive at all for holding peace talks with rebels. This is a turnaround from the position of Galvez, who pointed to localized peace talks as an effective way of resolving issues between the government and rebels.
“I have always been against that… You can’t take up arms and just violate the constitution, the same way that we don’t want rightists also to take up arms against the government,” Teodoro said. The Philippines saw military coup attempts during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, and mutinies during the Arroyo administration. Troops who joined the 2003 Oakwood and 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege were drummed out of the military but later granted amnesty.
“I have never been convinced that it is ideological. It is all getting, taking power for whatever reason,” Teodoro said.
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Teodoro also took note of the “gains” made by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, where Vice President Sara Duterte is also now a co-vice chairperson.
“We cannot also deny the gains made by the NTF-ELCAC in dismantling communist fronts and I have always been consistent in the position that rebels are welcome to go back to the fold of government,” he said.
Rights groups have called out the government’s anti-communist task force for somehow equating human rights work with terrorism. — with reports from Xave Gregorio, Cristina Chi, and Neil Jayson Servallos/The Philippine STAR newspaper
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