Defense Secretary 2.0

For the second time around, heading the Department of National Defense (DND), Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. vows to pursue in Congress the approval of a new Defense Act. Teodoro believes the passage into law of the new Defense Act will finally achieve the “cutting edge of the asymmetric defense” that will secure and effectively protect our country from both internal and external threats herein now and in the future.

Teodoro first served as Defense Secretary of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2007 to 2009 until he was fielded as her presidential candidate during the May 2010 elections. Unfortunately, Teodoro got beaten by his first cousin, the late President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. A lawyer by profession – he was a bar topnotcher – Teodoro went back to the private corporate sector.

He tried to get back to politics when he run under the UniTeam ticket but lost in the May 2022 elections.

In his first year into office at Malacañang, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) kept vacant three Cabinet posts and placed an officer-in-charge to each Department. And one of them was the DND. Following the lapse of the one-year appointment ban last June, PBBM named Teodoro as his Defense Secretary. So it was really reserved for Teodoro.

Having been that “been there, done that” guy at the Defense post, Teodoro certainly knows how to navigate on the to-do things that need the support of lawmakers. After all, Teodoro himself served for three consecutive terms in the Congresses past. He was the Congressional Representative of the first district of Tarlac from 1998 to 2007.

A good sign on how close he is with legislators, the 59-year-old Teodoro breezed through his confirmation recently. The powerful 25-man bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA) unanimously approved his nomination, but by-passed Teodoro Herbosa as Health Secretary.

In our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Teodoro underscored the urgency for the present 19th Congress to ensure the passage into law of this proposed new Defense Act. According to him, the men and women who know better how to achieve the mission of the DND helped draft the proposed legislative measure.

As it is at present, Teodoro rued, the DND still operates under Commonwealth Act Number 1, or the National Defense Act that was enacted in 1935. It was the late President Manuel L. Quezon of then Commonwealth Government of the Philippines, who signed it into law on December 21, 1935. Amended later by several Executive Orders, the National Defense Act of 1935 provided, among others, the Charter by which the DND operates up to present.

“We want a new Defense Law,” Secretary Teodoro declared.

Senator Jinggoy Estrada first filed the National Defense Security Act under Senate Bill (SB) 675 in July 2010. But it failed to get through the legislative mills of the 15th Congress. But now as the chairman of the Senate committee on national defense, Sen. Estrada refiled in June last year the same SB 675 in the present Congress.

Thus, Teodoro explained the proposed legislation also seeks an overhaul of the DND organization to gear up its personnel with the advancement of technology. To get the best and the fittest workforce, he cited, he would strongly endorse a pay scale for DND personnel different from the rest of those in the civil service. Currently, he cited, the Department has 300 men and women personnel, 90 percent civilian and 10 percent military.

Among the attached agencies of the DND, he half-jokingly said, is a hospital institution called Veterans Medical Center in Quezon City. Also under his office are the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Office of Civil Defense, National Defense College of the Philippines, and the Government Arsenal.

Under the administrative supervision and control of the DND, Teodoro pointed out, is the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Comprised of 150,000 or so men and women officers, the AFP has its strong and solid organization currently headed by AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.

In behalf of the AFP, Teodoro has weighed in to the controversial Military Uniformed Personnel (MUP) Pension System bill now still going through the Congress debates. Teodoro thanked the lawmakers for considering the DND inputs to improve the version of the MUP bill so it will be more acceptable and affordable to the officers and men of the AFP, in particular.

Under the DND version, an AFP Retirement Trust Fund will be given capital seed funds out of the sale of “non-strategic” military real estate properties. He believes there would be enough funding to cover for the 134,000 retired pensioners of the AFP. “And this number (of AFP pensioners) is no longer increasing,” he stressed.

Also pending approval in the 19th Congress, Teodoro added, is the proposed Self-Reliant Defense Program (SRDP). Once approved into law, Teodoro cited, this would authorize the DND more flexibility to undertake the AFP modernization program. As it is being implemented through these years, Teodoro explained, the AFP modernization program is limited to procurement of defense equipment from abroad.

As with the proposed new Defense Act bill, Sen. Estrada is also the author and principal sponsor of the SRDP bill. Renamed as the Self-Reliant Defense Posture Revitalization Act, SB 2455 seeks to ensure adequate defense assets and hardware for the country through domestic production and manufacturing, development of a national defense industry and lessening dependence on foreign and overseas suppliers.

Through this proposed law, Teodoro believes this could make the Philippines “co-owner” of the most modern military equipment amid the “emerging and disruptive technologies,” that now include the cyber space. This is not to mention the defense of our country’s archipelagic islands, skylines, the internal waters and the maritime borders, not just the West Philippine Sea, he added.

As Defense Secretary 2.0, this won’t be hard for Teodoro to gain support of the lawmakers for these key legislative measures.