Philippines Should Manufacture Its Own Drones to Avoid Import Reliance, Defense Chief Says
Key Takeaways
- •The Armed Forces of the Philippines needs more multi-purpose drones for long-term precision operations, according to Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr.'s Senate testimony.
- •The AFP has used up all of the drones donated by the United States because of limited supply.
- •Teodoro said acquiring multi-purpose drone equipment would require a local facility for raw materials.
- •He pointed to South Korea's modernization, which began in 1976 when US support was withdrawn, and said it advanced only because its basic steel and electronics sectors could sustain a defense ecosystem.
- •Without developing basic industries such as raw materials and power, the Philippines risks being limited to an assembly role dependent on imports for its outputs.
MANILA — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) needs more multi-purpose drones for long-term precision operations, Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. told the Senate on Monday, but acquiring such equipment would require a local facility for raw materials. The remarks tie an immediate capability question — drones — to a longer-running issue of whether the country can build, rather than import, its defense hardware.
Mr. Teodoro said the AFP has exhausted all of the drones donated by the United States because of limited supply. He noted that tactical drones remain useful, although long-term national defense calls for multi-purpose platforms. The depleted donations underscore the practical constraint he described: without a domestic production base, resupply rests on external sources rather than local capacity.
Pointing to South Korea's military modernization, Mr. Teodoro said the Philippines needs to expand its basic industries, particularly raw materials and assembly. South Korea's modernization began in 1976, when the United States withdrew its support from the country, he said. He emphasized, however, that South Korea's defense industry was able to advance only because its basic steel and electronics sectors were already capable of supporting a sustainable ecosystem for defense. In his framing, the same logic applies to drones: platforms can be acquired or donated, but sustaining them over time depends on steel, electronics, and power capacity at home.
“If we do not also remediate basic industry, for example, the raw materials, secondly power, we will be constrained to being an assembly location also reliant on importation for our outputs,” he said.
— Francessca S. Abalos, BusinessWorld Online
