The Philippines has been actively reshaping its defense strategy by building stronger ties with nations that uphold a rules-based international order, moving beyond traditional alliances as part of its strategic efforts to protect territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“The Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC), the foundation of the country’s defense strategy, aims to preserve our territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as assure our countrymen’s access to marine resources in our maritime domain,” retired Ambassador Marilyn Alarilla told Manila Standard.
“In the process of realizing these goals, the Philippines has expanded partnerships and defense programs with other countries that respect a rules-based international order,” she added.
The Philippines has seen increased diplomatic activity, with foreign leaders visiting to explore agreements similar to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and hold bilateral defense talks.
These efforts, aimed at enhancing defense ties through joint military exercises and knowledge-sharing, strengthen the country’s defense posture.
Over the past years, the Philippines’ defense posture has been steadily shifting from fighting local insurgency to maintaining territorial security.
This can be seen on the continuous visits and pledges of defense leadership of different countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Australia and even the United States as already given.
For the Philippine Army, bilateral training with allied nations focuses on its transformation into a “world class army.”
Among those exercises is the Salaknib exercises that trained Army Artillery Regiment troops with a US made missile system, aside from the regular Balikatan Exercises.
“It is not directed to counter any country. We want to become a world class Army, multi-mission ready and cross domain capable. Our comprehensive strategic planning considers exercises that best suit our land force as we make a significant leap to our territorial defense.” Army Spokesperson Colonel Louie Dema-ala told Manila Standard.
“These exercises will help us enhance our capabilities and interoperability. Aside from exercises/drills, we are also doing subject matter expert exchanges trainings with other countries like the UK, Japan,” he added.
For its part, the Air Force has participated in 6 bilateral exercises; Pitchblack, Cope Thunder PH among others, all of them were with US counterparts.
“These new alliances symbolize that a rules-based regional, and subsequently international order, is gaining strength… The perspective is on which values are driving countries with respect to their political and strategic decisions, including freedom of navigation and overflight,” Alarilla expounded.
She emphasized the importance of these partnerships in addressing regional security challenges, particularly in the West Philippine Sea.
The former envoy described China as a revisionist state seeking to alter the international rules-based order to align with its interests, including promoting authoritarian governance.
This, she argued, poses an existential threat to nations that advocate for democracy, good governance, transparency, accountability, and human rights.
Meanwhile, Matteo Piasentini, a political scientist and Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines – Diliman Department of Political Science, suggested that the push for ‘defense diversification’ is part of the country’s broader effort to pursue a more independent foreign policy, aiming to reduce its ‘over-reliance’ on US security.
“This is also a way of signaling that Manila has its own agency regarding security and defense matters, countering narratives that portray the Philippines as merely a US pawn,” Piasentini told Manila Standard.
“That said, it’s also indisputable that these partnerships are (deliberately or implicitly) aligned with the broader objective of limiting China’s ability to project power in the region, which is why they don’t generally face US opposition,” he expounded.
Piasentini further explained that these partnerships “represent an effort to address the lack of deterrence capabilities that the Philippines is currently experiencing.”
“Strengthening partnerships is an effective way to temporarily offset the shortfall in defense capabilities. The AFP modernization program will take years to complete, so the Philippines is seeking to compensate for this delay with a web of transnational defense ties,” Piasentini explained.
“While I don’t believe the Philippines currently has a comprehensive strategy for the Indo-Pacific region as a whole, these partnerships are instrumental in strengthening the country’s ability to control its borders and assert its sovereign rights,” he added.
For National Security Expert Dr. Chester Cabalza, Philippine strategy to forge defense alliances, to conduct, host or join military exercises with non-superpower nations like Canada, South Korea and Australia can strengthen Indo-Pacific strategy.
“More than de-risking, it is called collective deterrence mainly because these allied countries have identified common threats. This is to advance their international support to maintain rules-based order,” he told the Manila Standard.
Cabalza further described the numerous pacts and exercises “important to confront emerging security issues.”
“These are proactive and reactive instruments to create simulated realities to pursue their own national interest aligned in preserving regional and global security,” he concluded.
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